Vamp Camps
by Gilbert's Door
Summary: The existence of vampires has been revealed to the world, and the Slayers have rounded up all the Vampires and stuck them in Vampire Prisons, Vlad included. He has almost given up when his eyes fall upon a breather girl, and their unexpected friendship sets things in motion that will change everything. (Set after series 3)
1. The Void

**I told myself I was going to use this summer to finish all my fanfics, and instead have started a new one! Oh well, hope you like it.**

This void was a kind of indirect torture that even the most evil of Vampires couldn't of conjured up. Vladimir often wondered if he was dead, and if this was some form of afterlife. An afterlife where everything was a crystal clear shade of blinding white, from blank walls and ceiling to the colourless shoes on his feet. He'd always heard the breathers talking about the white light and the purity of heaven, and this place would have been just as innocent, if it wasn't for the sharply carved stakes in the hands of each guard.

Of course, Vlad wasn't even contemplating the possibility that he, a vampire, would get a chance to go to heaven, whether it existed or not. And regardless of that, the buzzers and bells, strict discipline, and horrific lack of real sustenance, were constant reminders that this place was far, far closer to hell.

Did they deserve this? Thousands of years just taking what they wanted; hunting, killing and manipulating breathers. Now they had to pay the price, and by garlic was it high.

But what was the point even thinking about it? Vlad hadn't really been doing much of that lately. He didn't need to. The slayers told them what to do, and everyday it was the same. He might as well of been dead.

Except he was already, and that was why he was there.

Vlad wasn't even sure how long it had been. There were no calendars or distinctive events like Halloween or Bag-a-Breather day to count the months by. He couldn't even tell what time of year it was, as all the windows were just a bright sheet of white.

Vlad reckoned the slayers chose the bright colours just to spite them. Even looking at the daylight seeping through the translucent blinds on the windows made Vlad's eyes hurt, and the slayers didn't even let them sleep during the day.

Today Vlad knew it was a Monday though. Monday was the day he was inspected by the warden.

All of the Vampires were inspected on Mondays. They were all forced to sit along the sides of the hallway in a long queue, waiting to be seen as armed slayers patrolled the corridors. No talking was allowed. They all had to sit there in silence, their hands bound with argintalium, and wait for their name to be called.

'Vladimir Dracula', called a voice from inside the warden's office.

Vlad rose from his seat and entered the office, escorted by two guards

He had been partaking in the same routine for garlic knows how long, and still every time he had to close his eyes as he entered. The bright white walls of the hallway were nothing compared to the wardens office. The glass in the windows here wasn't coated in white, but completely bare, with only a UV filter protecting him. On this particular day the bright rays of the sun were shining into the room, and it was all Vlad could do not to wince in pain as he squinted up at the warden.

The warden himself was a rather stocky, tanned and aging man, who felt no need to greet the thing that had just entered his study. It sat there, grimacing at the rays of light that showed it for what it truly was. Granted, the medication the vamps were given did lower their resilience to sunlight and garlic, making them more sensitive to the light than they would perhaps have been normally, but it still exposed them for what they were, and this boy was no different.

He was, in fact, still just a boy. According to his file, he had yet to turn nineteen, and his slim frame didn't really impose much of the terror that biters were famous for. Despite this however, he had the highest levels of UVS (Unnatural Vampiric Skills) that had ever been recorded, and even now, when he was shackled and medicated, his voice rang out like the drums of hell itself. Or maybe that was just the warden's imagination.

'Still haven't found room in the budget for blinds then I see,' he said, grimacing and trying to open his eyes as he sat down.

'I wouldn't hold your breath bloodsucker' said one of the guards who stood behind the warden.

The vampire smiled at the joke, flashing his bright white teeth in a grin and closing his eyes again. 'If only I could...'

The warden had to admit he was very strange for a biter. Most of them would shout abuse at the guards and himself, both in Transylvanian and English, or threaten them, or just rant about how vampires were superior to humans. Either that or they would never said anything at all. The things Dracula said however were not natural for a vamp, and that chilled the warden's bones to the very core.

He cleared his throat and shuffled his papers importantly.

'You're due a UVS scan and a shot,' he said briskly.

This was standard procedure, and the vamp nodded once as the nurse began preparing the medication. The warden thanked all that was wooden and pointy that he didn't have to do that part. The nurse had to actually touch the biters! Despite his facade of being the imposing and fearless Warden, he still couldn't stand coming into contact with those demons in human form. That was why he'd always preferred the desk job rather than going out to hunt the vamps... before they'd all been captured of course.

It was strange when the warden thought about his position at the camp. When at first all the Vampires has been rounded and locked up he had been all for their complete extermination, as many other slayers had been. Now though, he was almost glad the government had brought in the Vampire Detainment Camps. The warden had a place now; a place where he was respected.

The warden looked on with disgust as a blood sample was taken for the UVS scan. Then a needle was readied with the Vampire Inhibitor Shot. By now Vlad was used to this procedure. It had to be done every week, and he held out his wrist for the nurse. He'd tried to resist before, but experience told him it definitely wasn't worth it.

The nurse took his arm, not even flinching at his cold temperature, and injected the needle into his wrist. Vlad winced slightly... the nurse wasn't really a nurse, just a rather stocky slayer in an apron. He had a feeling that he enjoyed it too, and Vlad winced again as the nurse yanked the needle out of his arm.

It took a while for the chemicals to take effect due to the fact that his heart wasn't actually beating the blood around his body. However, before long he began to feel his limbs grow heavier as the mixture slowly circulated his limbs, dampening his super speed and strength and completely removing his ability to shape-shift.

The office turned into a glaring blur, as it always did, and he was led out by rough hands into the hallway and sent away as the next name was called. Just another Monday.

**pagebreakpagebreakpagebreak**

It was lunchtime... or red paste in a cup time...

Vlad closed his eyes and leant his head into his hands, his elbows on the table.

He was starting to give up. He was starting to forget what it was like to go about a normal life. Jesus, even normal for his family would do compared to this.

And it wasn't ever going to change. He was a vampire. He was going to live forever, and forever in here was going to be a long, long time.

A sudden shiver went down his spine, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He was being watched. He snapped his head up to the balcony above the eating hall. A young woman was standing there amongst a group of male slayers, and she was staring at him. As his eyes met hers she literally jumped, and looking flustered quickly straightened her hair out before walking from the edge of the balcony. She was definitely a breather, but Vlad couldn't tell if she was a slayer or not. She was the first person he'd seen in months wearing normal clothes, rather than the vampire's white uniform or the slayer's green camo. She was also the first _girl_ he'd seen in what felt like a life time! She stuck out like lightning in a storm, with too eyes as deep and dark as black holes. What she was wearing itself was pretty stunning too, and Vlad tried not to let his eyes look too long at the slim curves she had hiding under her dress. She flicked him another fleeting glance and walked away. Vlad sighed slightly, realising that he would have probably found Renfield in a wig attractive right now, after living in the male section of the 'Vamp Camp' with nothing but other guys to look at.

But why had she been staring at him? And looked so flustered when he caught her in the act? Vlad wasn't really sure of any of it, but he was certain he wouldn't mind catching a glimpse of her again.

**pagebreakpagebreakpagebreak**

Anna closed her eyes and cringed at what had just happened, almost bumping into a clumsy looking guard with a box labelled 'slippers' in the process. Why had she been staring so intently at that vampire? And why oh why had he decided to look back!?

He might not have looked at her, she thought hopefully. He might have just been looking up. Everyone had to look up once in a while.

But who was she kidding! He had looked right into her eyes, and she had panicked! What had he thought when he saw her looking at him? Did vampire even think? Or at least any thoughts other than blood and biting. Everyone always said they were rather animalistic; just thinking about their prey. She'd seen them fighting one another before, and the way they snarled at each other... they were vicious!

But this one, he wasn't past it like half of the others in the camp. He looked about her age. Mind you, she had to remind herself that they lived forever, and that he could have looked like that for the last one hundred years.

She had heard her dad mention that this was one of the maximum security Vamp Camps. To be locked up in here you had to be either really powerful or really insane. She didn't know which one the black haired biter was, but either way he was a threat.

Anna felt like giving herself a slap. 'Stop thinking about a vampire of all things!' she muttered to herself as she headed towards the slayer's cafeteria. She just hadn't seen any good looking boys lately. Here they were either too old or too serious. Her vamp had been serious... but those eyes and that hair and that bone structure made up for it...

Flying stakes! She was disgusting herself! She found a murderer attractive! She definitely needed a boyfriend.

**Drop me a review. Much appreciated. :)**


	2. The Beating

Vlad was starting to forget which day of the week it was again. They all just merged into one, and this cloudy head he had didn't help. He always had it, but it was worse for a couple of days after he'd had the medication. He couldn't concentrate properly on anything, and every movement he made felt slow and uncoordinated. They said that the meds just removed all the vampire abilities he had. He could of sworn he had never felt so heavy and slow like this before he was a vampire... but maybe he'd just forgotten.

It was the mid morning break they always had. There was a small grassy quad somewhere in the middle of the facility with a huge white dome over it where they were given a few hours each day to get some exercise or chat amongst themselves. Most of the vampires sat in little clumps around the quad, muttering inane things to each other about the good old days, or how much they hated the artificial blood they were given for breakfast.

Vlad didn't really partake in these conversations, mostly because he couldn't see the point any more. The courtyard was dotted with trees, and Vlad plonked himself down by the base of one in the corner. He didn't know what else to do really. He didn't really know any of the vampires here too well. None of his family were here, which sometimes worried him. As this was a male only camp he was sure Ingrid would of been put in the female equivalent. What worried him was his Dad. He was powerful and rather well renowned wasn't he? Vlad would of thought he'd be in the high security prison with him.

Of course, of all people, Renfield was in the camp, but he wasn't here because of his vampiric abilities. If the boil infested butler had been mad before, he was now more crazy than Ingrid when she lost a game of Vamponopoly. If Vlad leant back on his hands and looked around the benches he could just about see Renfield trying to swim in the withered and dead flower garden, with the occasional shout of 'all aboard!'

Vlad closed his eyes and leant his head against the tree. He tried to imagine the wind rustling through the leaves, or the feeling of the starlight on his silver skin. He tried to remember what it felt like to be free, but the memory was rotting inside his head. In time there would be nothing left at all.

Vlad must of been there for longer than he'd thought, because when he looked around the whole courtyard was deserted. At first he wondered whether he'd drifted off into the dream world, but on checking the clock on the wall he saw that their break had ended ten minutes ago.

Vlad stood up and started walking across the courtyard when a group of slayers with a football entered.

Their laughs and friendly jeers were immediately silenced as they saw him.

'What the hell are you doing here on your own?' said one of the slayers at the front, walking up to him.

'I didn't hear the bell...' Vlad began, trying to focus on them all as the cloud circled his brain. There were about five or six of them, and they started to surround him as he tried to make his way out of the courtyard.

'Look guys, the little vampy wamp is all alone. That can't be good,' said one guy who somewhat resembled a large long soup spoon; kind of lanky with a very round head.

'What have you been plotting?' snarled a particularly small and mean looking one, who's eyes kept bouncing around in his skull.

'Chill it Tim, he probably just wanted a bit of alone time,' said another one at the back.

'Let's show him what happens when bloodsuckers are left alone,' another said with a sneer, and before Vlad knew it he had been pushed to the ground and several pairs of boots were raining down on him like stakes in a coffin. He felt sick. His head was spinning with dark swirling clouds, and his eyes blurred as pain shot through his chest and back. It was all he could do to make himself as small as possible as heavy guard boots came at him from all angles.

Just when Vlad thought he was about to pass out the jeers and insults ringing above him stopped. The guard's shadows moved off him as a female voice sounded loud across the yard.

'Oh my god! Stop! Stop!'

The slayers all moved back and began straightening themselves out. Vlad winced as he tried to move, attempting to prop himself up on his elbow.

'What the hell...' she said almost to herself.

'Look Anna, it had to be taught a lesson...' said one of them with a grumble.

'Come on Craig,' said another guard, and they all left the yard without another word.

Vlad pushed himself up so that he was kneeling on the muddy grass and tried to clear the swarms of bats that were flying around his head.

'Are... are you...'

Vlad looked up to see the girl still stood there, staring at him. He made to get up, but winced as pain shot across his rib cage, so decided to sit back down again.

Anna didn't know whether she should say something. She didn't know if she should try and help him, or just leave, so she just stood and stared at him. She hadn't even known it was the black haired boy from before until the guards had all left.

'Should... should I...' She stumbled over her words, so just went back to standing and staring. She could tell he was trying to regain his composure, and would have said he was just taking long deep breaths if she hadn't known any better.

'You can leave if you like.'

Shivers went shooting down her spine as she heard him speak. It was perfect. The way his lips moved to form the words, the way his voice rang crystal clear on the air. She thought about what he'd said. She could leave... she probably should leave, but she didn't want to.

'No wait!' she said as he attempted to get up again, this time being more successful at it. 'You should stay still, you look hurt.'

'I'll be fine,' he said as he stood up slowly, pressing his hand to his ribcage as he tried to hide the pain in his face.

Then Anna thought of an ingenious way to find out his name.

'You could be concussed! Do you know what day it is? What's your name?'

'I'm not sure, two or three days after Monday, what day is that again?'

Jesus, she thought, maybe he is concussed.

'It's Wednesday,' she said matter-of-factly. 'What's your name?'

'Vladimir,' he said, closing his eyes briefly.

Damn it. She had been hoping he would have a horribly ugly and scary name like Severed Fingers, or at least something silly like Batty. She knew there was definitely a biter in this place called Throttle.

Vladimir. It was almost... elegant, and it suited him perfectly. Even when he was standing battered and bruised in front of her, his eyes shone like dark pools of still water, framed by the dark nights sky of his hair and the cool white ice of his complexion.

She was pulled suddenly from her sinful thoughts as he started to walk towards her. A flash of panic stirred as she realised she was standing unarmed and alone with a vampire, and she instinctively took a step back.

He stared at her for about three seconds and she almost felt embarrassed. She stood to the side to let him pass and watched as he walked as quickly as he could out of the quad and down the corridor. She clutched her arms to her sides and tried to stop thinking about the buzzes of excitement that were zipping through her. Anna had never felt like this. He had barely even spoken a sentence to her, it was stupid.

He was wrong. He was evil.

She had to keep telling herself that.

**R &amp; R s'il vous plait.**


	3. Thoughts

Sometimes Vlad had to remind himself that he should be grateful. He was locked up in this miserable place, but anything had to be better than being a pile of dust in someone's Hoover bag. If it hadn't been for the protesters he would of been exactly that. The slayers had been all for wiping them out; obliterating their entire race and having done with it. The humans however, that is, the normal people, they had protested, and so here they all were.

There were a few camps up and down the country, all divided into sections. Males and females were separated, and they were placed in different camps depending on their natural strength and powers. Vlad, being the chosen one, was in the highest security prison. Most of the slayers had been surprised to learn that the dreadfully powerful and legendary chosen one of the vampire race was a skinny teenager. They had heard stories about his powers (only of which about half were true) that made their slayer blood run cold, but seeing Vlad in the flesh had made them doubt how fearsome he actually was. The vampires knew more of the truth about how many powers he possessed, and he had been regarded with a certain degree of apprehension when he'd first arrived here.

Of course, in this place they were all medicated and regularly checked over. The slayers couldn't risk any one of them regaining their powers...

Vlad turned over in his bed, fidgeting as he tried to get more comfortable. He didn't know whether the slayers had given them all beds just to spite them, or if the idea of providing coffins hadn't even crossed their mind. Either way, Vlad hated them. They were hot and slouchy and wobbly. He couldn't believe sometimes that he had once _chosen_ to sleep in them.

He had been trying to get to sleep for over an hour now, but no matter how many bouncing bats he counted his mind kept sneaking back to the girl.

Anna, the guard had called her. Vlad had to admit that if it hadn't been for Anna the aches that kept pulsing through his body would've been a lot more severe. She had been uneasy, and yet so inquisitive it almost made him smile to think about it. There was an attractive naivety about her; a kind of childish charm. And she had the most entrancing eyes, like melted chocolate dashed with flecks of silvery white.

Of course, Vlad had noticed her natural aversion towards him, and he couldn't deny it had struck a chord. Anyone would have been interested if they'd found the supposed leader of the vampires being beaten up by a bunch of slug-brained slayers. She hadn't been showing interest in _him_, just in the situation. He knew he was nothing to her. She probably didn't even remember his name.


	4. Waiting in the Hallway

**Firebird08x- thanks for the review! I completely forgot about this fic and it turns out I have several new chapters already drafted/written!**

Anna hadn't been overjoyed when she had been sent to stay with her dad over the summer. Several weeks of supposed father-daughter bonding time, in a town she knew nothing of and where she knew nobody.

Anna's Dad wasn't the type of man that wore his heart on his sleeve. He was rather gruff, and didn't stand for any nonsense as far as feelings were concerned. The most they had bonded so far was sharing a meat feast whilst watching the football.

'Why are you still here Anna?' said her dad without looking up from his papers.

Anna didn't bother to look up either, and continued watching her legs as they swung forwards and backwards under the desk. Several minutes went by before the warden tried again, looking up from his files this time.

'Anna? What are you still doing here?'

'Alright then, I'll go back to the cafe if you're so bored of me,' she said, making a point of sounding bitter.

'No, I meant _here,_ in the camp. You must be tired of all this by now. I was surprised when you wanted to come here in the first place.'

Anna stuck out her tongue at him and swung of the table top. She span round and plonked herself in the chair opposite her dad's. 'Well, you moan so much about it I wanted to see how bad it actually was. And you know what...' she said, as a certain individual with jet black hair crossed her mind, '...I was expecting worse.'

'Huh,' said her tetchy old man. 'You haven't seen these freaks when they're at their most unpleasant...' and his words faded out into his frizzy beard as he carried on scolding her.

Anna rolled her eyes, letting them come to rest on the name plate on her dad's desk. 'Warden Henry Stokes' had always made the Vamp Camp sound like the depths of hell itself. It was more like a care/funeral home in Anna's opinion.

Henry looked at his daughter as she sat there twiddling her thumbs nonchalantly. His only daughter staying with him for four continuous weeks had made him ecstatic (on the inside). He really did think the world of her, he just wasn't very good at showing it.

'Anna, love. You can't hang around in here all day. I've got the Chosen One coming any minute...'

'Chosen One?'

Henry winced slightly. He shouldn't really give that much away. Ah, he thought, what harm could it do. 'That's what they all call him anyway, the vamps. He's the most powerful one of them all. The leader or something. Don't ask me.' He paused and looked at her. 'Anna, it's Friday. Why don't you go and see a film or something?'

At that moment a loud rat-a-tat tatted on the sturdy door. Anna sat up slightly as two armed slayer guards walked into her dad's office. The three exchanged a glance, then her dad was handed a pile of forms that he began sifting through, the top one of which was marked '0001: Chosen One'

'Anna, here you go. Take this and go to the cinema on me.' He slipped a crisp twenty pound note into her hand and waved her towards the door.

Anna looked at the guards and her dad coolly for a moment, but then smiled at the warden, turned, and left the office.

**pagebreakpagebreakpagebreak**

Vlad sat down carefully on the bench outside the office, trying not to bump his bruises as he waited for the guards to come back outside and get him. All the way through the camp and up the corridor he had had to listen to them arguing about who was going to take in the large stack of files and who was going to guard him. In the end they had decided that argintalium handcuffs would do their job for them, and they'd left Vlad wishing he could for once eavesdrop on an actually interesting conversation, since lately he wasn't having any remarkable ones of his own.

The silence was suddenly broken by a very loud creak. Vlad snapped his eyes open and sat up straight as the door to the warden's office opened. But rather than the portly and balding man he had been expecting, a young woman entered the corridor. Her dark hair was pinned up, and bouncing curls fell about her face, which held a rather bored and irritated expression.

Of course, it was the girl he had seen before. The breather girl that he had been thinking about rather a lot recently. What was wrong with him? Why was it always breather or slayer girls? Vlad shrugged inwardly. Maybe the saying was true that opposites attract.

She didn't even look at him as she closed the door behind her with a click, frowning at a twenty pound note she held and muttering under her breath. She was about to walk past when her eyes flitted to where he was sat, causing her to jump back in rather comical alarm.

Anna's eyes stayed wide with shock for a moment, then she smiled hesitantly. 'Hello.'

Vlad let half a smile dance across his lips and returned the greeting.

She opened her mouth to speak, closed it again, then finally mustered up the courage, making Vlad's smile come onto his face in full as he watched her conflicted expression.

'Are you... are you alright?' she said hesitantly. 'You know, after yesterday...'

The bruise over Vlad's eye answered her question for her, and she looked uncomfortable as her voice fizzled out.

Vlad's smile had slipped from his face. He closed his eyes briefly and tried to bat away the dark mists that threatened to contaminate his mind again. His chest felt numb and his head hurt, but he quickly tried to look normal as Anna studied him anxiously. This was the very promising start of a conversation, and he didn't want to mess it up.

'Yeah, garlic knows it could have been worse.'

Vlad watched her smile shyly for a second before asking the question that had been bothering him. 'Who are you?'

'I'm Anna. The Warden is... my Dad! believe it or not.' Then she turned to the closed door behind her with a quizzical expression. 'Wait. My dad just said...' and she turned to look at him with a new sense of interest and almost awe in her warm brown eyes.

Vlad blinked at her. 'Said what?'

She shook her head dismissively. 'Nothing,' but she continued to look at him in that weird way; almost like she was sizing him up. 'What are you doing here?'

'I'm having my UVS levels analysed.'

Anna just looked at him.

'You know... the 'unnatural skills' that I have...'

'Oh yeah, I know.' She had relaxed a bit, leaving against the wall behind her. 'How to they actually measure those... skills? My dad wouldn't tell me.'

Vlad could feel the cloud thickening in his brain and slowing his thoughts. He knew exactly why the Warden was reluctant to tell her. A huge vial of blood would be extracted, then for good measure they'd be injected with a UVS inhibitor, so you wouldn't only feel utterly weak and light headed, but the grey swirling mists would cloud your head so much you would feel like you were drowning in them.

'Oh,' Vlad said, trying to act casual. 'Just a blood test.'

Despite himself, Vlad still said it rather bitterly, and Anna cocked her head to the side, looking at him. 'Is it horrible having blood taken from you?'

'You tell me, breather,' Vlad said, flashing his pearly whites.

Anna blinked, then laughed heartily, and Vlad suddenly found himself laughing too. When Vlad's face lit up with laughter Anna tried to stifle a gasp at how garlic damn pretty he was. Even sitting there in handcuffs with a black eye, his smile animated his face and made him look amazing. Was he really the chosen one her dad had been talking about? He was supposedly the most powerful vampire, but he didn't really look very scary.

Anna still couldn't believe that she was just standing there casually chatting to him. She didn't want it to stop, and so racked her brains for anything she could say. She needn't of bothered though, as he got in there first.

'I'm sorry, Anna, I never said thank you for getting rid of those slayers.' He paused. 'Thank you.'

Anna was flummoxed. The supposed vamp leader had just apologised and thanked her all in the same sentence.

'You're quite odd, for a vampire,' she said, half to herself.

'Because I've never heard that one before...' At the puzzled look on her face he felt the need to continue. 'I've always been very different from my vampire peers and family.'

'How so?'

'Well,' Vlad said, raising a hand up to itch his nose, and making the other hand trail along with it. 'I spent every waking minute before I was sixteen looking for a way out of being a vampire.'

Anna certainly hadn't expected to hear that. 'Did you ever come close?'

'I tried almost everything. Magic staffs, potions, alchemy... all dead ends though, as you might of guessed,' Vlad said gesturing to himself with a sad smile.

'So... so you wish you were human?'

'No not really, I had to come to terms with it,' and he laughed humourlessly. 'In fact, I think I actually miss it.'

Anna looked confused. 'Miss what?'

'I miss... the sound of the owls as they rustle their feathers and huddle down together at night. The sound of bats as they spread their wings and take flight. The smell of grass being cut ten miles away, or the smell of the rain before it even pours. I miss being able to run faster than sound, whilst feeling the wind rush past me and watching the lights around me blur together.'

Anna looked at him with renewed awe. 'You can... you can really do all that?'

The vampire opened his eyes and looked at her. 'Not anymore.'

**Thanks for reading this far, and if you'd like me to upload any more please leave a quick review. I love hearing what people think!**


	5. Renfield's Rampage

**Thank you for all the reviews! I love reading what you guys comment :)**

'Master Vlad... Master Vlad!'

A small smile tugged at Vlad's lips at the forgotten words. He was only half asleep, and he knew he was dreaming, but Renfield's incessant calling persuaded Vlad to try and stay asleep.

'What is it?' he said as he turned a corner into an entrance hall, similar to the one central to the corridors that twisted in and out of Garside.

More often than not nowadays Vlad would never go to the dream world at all, and would wake up with nothing but the memory of blacky grey nothingness. However, this time the dream world had conjured itself up and created an image that looked like his old life. It was almost exactly the same. Miss Macaulay's extra-curricular notice board was still stuck on the wall, covered in various flyers and graffiti, and the staircase still twisted around and up into the ceiling, covered in spiders and cobwebs. It would of almost felt comfortable to be there, if it wasn't for the fact that every surface was a horrifically clinical pure white.

The hallway, rather than being dark and broody like it always had been, was now blindingly bright. It was as if the prison he lived in now was seeping into his old life...

'Master Vlad!'

Vlad tore his gaze away from the aberrant room, letting it come to rest on the two figures in the centre of the room. After staring for a moment he realised that one was Renfield, wearing a platinum blonde plaited wig and a flowing blue gown to match. He was bent on his knees with his neck jerked upwards, hanging from his necktie. The hand holding the necktie tightened its grip, its black nails stark against the pale skin surrounding them.

'Vlad! Aw, you came to save poor Renfield... that's sweet.'

There was absolutely nothing sweet about Ingrid as she shifted from one heeled foot to the other, walking around Renfield, who's eyes were wide and fearful.

'Let me go, maggot!' came his slobby voice.

'Shut it worm!'

'Nasty boil!'

'Bat botherer!'

'What is going on?' Vlad said, trying to stay calm and collected. Ingrid tightened her grip on Renfield's neck and his defiant expression was once again nowhere to be seen.

'This toad-sucking cockroach has been singing empowering songs in an American accent non-stop for hours, so I thought I'd end it, and him for that matter!' she said with a venomous grin. 'I thought it would be fun if you watched.'

'Ingrid, leave Renfield alone...'

'Yeah! I'm a vampire now! You have to leave me alone!'

Ingrid's eyes flashed. 'You bloodsucker! You don't deserve to even be alive! Your unnatural demonic existence should be ended right now!' And out of nowhere she brandished a freshly sharpened stake, its tip trained on Renfield's heart.

Vlad was extremely confused. 'Ingrid, you're not making any sense...'

'And you! The Chosen One! You're next. A demon walking among the living. You'll be dust!'

A voice in the back of Vlad's mind was laughing hysterically at the whole affair. The dream world had got Ingrid so wrong; she would never say any of this. Then another voice that wasn't so crazed with mirth reminded Vlad that this was the dream world, where anything could happen.

'It's not long now Vlad.'

'Ingrid stop it,' Vlad said, holding out his hands in a sign of peace. 'Let Renfield go, please?'

Amazingly she conformed. She stepped aside and let go of Renfield's neck with a dramatic flourish.

Vlad sighed with relief momentarily before Renfield opened his mouth wide and a spine-chilling scream filled the room.

'Ingrid! Stop it! What are you doing?'

Her face didn't deviate from that malicious sneer she was so fond of.

'I'm not doing anything.'

Renfield's screams intensified, and he curled up in a ball on the floor, his shoulders shuddering with pain.

'Ingrid...'

'Run,' she said. 'You're next.'

Vlad jolted awake, and was horrified when the screaming didn't stop. Renfield was screaming in the real world too, rocking backwards and forwards in his seat. Whereas old Renfield had only ever been a little bit unorthodox, this Renfield had gone completely off his rocker. As far as Vlad could tell the 'normal' Renfield had been bled dry, and there was nothing left but insanity.

Slayer guards raced down the line of vampires. One took a firm hold of Renfield and tried to shake him into silence, but the screaming carried on. The second slayer didn't waste any time in delivering a crunching punch right in the face. Silence filled the hallway once more, and the slayers went back to their patrolling.

Vlad's brain was still foggy from his nap, and it took him a while to remember he was in the queue with the other vampires waiting for their vampiric skills inhibitor shot, the same as every Monday.

He was feeling a little flustered to say the least. What had all that meant? The dream world often had some relationship with the real world, but it could signify any number of things. The only good interpretation of the dream he could seem to think of was that wherever she was, Ingrid was still vicious enough to look after herself.

An Ingrid with a slayer mentality though... that was even more disturbing than Renfield rolling around in pain, or the same person in a blue dress... with cleavage.

'Next!' came the usual shout, and one vampire replaced another in the warden's office to get their shot.

Vlad groaned inwardly. His analysis session the Wednesday before had detected increased levels of UVS in his system. Vlad wasn't really sure why this was, but he had his suspicions. Before the camps he'd always been more powerful when he was happy, and looking at and talking to a certain slayer girl had made him exactly that, as well as reminding him about another blonde slayer who'd made him smile. Either way though the reading had frightened the slayers and the warden, what with him being the chosen one, and they had decided to double his inhibitor dosage from now on. His fuzzy brain was almost unbearable to cope with when given the current dosage. Vlad dreaded to think what doubling it would do to the clouds in his brain.

'Next!'

A shadow fell across Vlad, then he felt himself being lifted up by the arm and marched into the warden's office.

'Good morning,' said Vlad, attempting pleasantries, despite feeling the morning was exactly the opposite.

The Warden (should warden have a capital? Oh well, it does now) was sitting there as usual, except there was a different nurse this time; a rather tall and weedy looking boy, who couldn't have been older than 18. He was looking a little flustered as he tried to make sense of the shot instructions.

'Time for your shot,' said the warden, skimming Vlad's file.

The nurse was readying the shot when a loud bang sounded from outside the office. They all sat there in silence for a moment before the Warden shook himself. 'Come on Jones get on with it!'

'Oh, yes... yes sir.'

Jones moved around the desk and took Vlad's arm, laying it across the tabletop.

'Where's the usual guy?' Vlad said.

The Warden frowned at him. 'He's holidaying for two weeks in Italy.'

'Alright for some...'

The Warden made a kind of gruff noise and ignored him. The needle was poised over Vlad's vein when the Warden spoke up.

'Oh yes, Jones, don't forget to double the dosage for this one. Its UVS readings were much too high.'

Vlad tried not to be offended at being referred to as an 'it', and readied himself for the needle.

''Dou... double dosage?'

'Yes Jones! This bloodsucker is the Chosen One for crying out loud! Didn't you know that?'

Jones shook his head. Vlad raised his own and looked the boy right in the eye. The boy flinched.

Another bang suddenly sounded from outside, followed by a loud yell.

'Jones! Go and see what's going on out there.'

The nurse moved towards the door, when it suddenly flew open and an angry vampire launched itself at Jones. It took a moment for Vlad to realise that it was in fact Renfield, his eyes wild and his bald head shining with sweat. The crazed former butler was snarling viciously, and his nails, that were jagged and long, began to claw at the boys throat.

'Grab him... grab him!' cried the slayer guards as they ran into the office and tried to pin the crazed vampire down. 'I'm so sorry Warden... he's lost it!'

'Get it out of here! Take it to the basement and try and calm it down! I'll be there after I've done all these shots. The Warden looked down at Jones, who was lying on the floor, clutching his neck and sobbing into the carpet. 'Take this nurse to the infirmary. Those nail marks are going to need stitches. You!' he said, pointing to the first slayer he saw. 'You can be the new nurse.'

'M-M-Me?' the slayer said as his colleagues dragged Renfield out.

'Yes! Put this apron on and try to look knowledgeable. Next!'

Someone was grabbing Vlad by the scruff of his neck and shoving him out into the corridor, as the next vampire walked in behind him.

Vlad was taken aback. He had known that Renfield was crazy, but not crazy enough to storm the Warden's office. That was just asking for trouble.

He pulled his sleeve back down again and headed towards the cafeteria to get his blood supplement, his mind whirring and spinning. Was Renfield's little outburst somehow connected to the Renfield in his dream? And if so, what could he do about it? Renfield has been at the mercy of Ingrid, and now he was at the mercy of the slayers. As he rounded the corner out of the sight of the Warden's office Vlad found himself hoping for the first time in his life that Renfield would be alright.

**Let me know what you think :)**


	6. Sick Discovery

Vlad felt wonderful. He had slept amazingly all night, despite the heavy rain he'd heard pouring down outside. The dream world had been nothing but a lazy few hours playing vampire poker with his old friend Chloe and the granddad who'd sometimes mown the lawn at Garside. Chloe had won, and the old man had been so enraged that he'd ran around Garside cutting things with scissors. It had been weird and hilarious, and Vlad had woken up with a smile and a fresh feeling he hadn't felt in a long time.

It was evening now and he still felt invigorated. He was queuing for his blood supplement, and after being given the tasteless sludge he went and sat down.

On the other side of the cafeteria behind the protective railing Anna was scanning the benches.

'What are you looking for?' asked the slayer she was with. (Hum, what is she looking for? I know, because I'm the author of this fic, and I can do what I want with it. Is this little author's insert annoying you? Good.)

'Oh, nothing. I just can't believe how many of them there are!' Anna said, lying smoothly.

The slayer shifted his UV gun on his shoulder. 'This is nothing, after all, it's only a select few that get in this high security camp. A few weeks ago I was in one in Manchester that had ten thousand vamps in it! All sat in rows like this,'

'Really?' said Anna, pretending to be interested. The slayer was called Mark, and she'd got to know him a bit after hanging out around the camp, but he was possibly the most straight person she had ever met. The funniest thing he had said so far was a story about how his gran had once fallen down the gap between the train and the platform, but when she'd laughed he'd looked confused, and gone on to insist how dangerous the situation had been.

She let him bang on about vampire populations and focused on finding her favourite bloodsucker. After a minute of scanning her eyes came to rest on a mop top of black hair, sitting between a pot-bellied vamp with a moustache and a withered looking vamp with beady eyes.

'Vlad,' she said, under her breath.

To her surprise the vampire looked up and met her gaze. A grin flashed upon his face and immediately Anna's mouth was smiling to match his. Then he pointed down at his cup and made mock retching movements into it. Anna laughed out loud at him, whilst the withered vamp's small eyes narrowed as he shifted his own cup further away from Vlad.

'Did I say something funny?' Mark asked, confused.

'That'd be the day...'

'What?'

Anna felt her eyes roll. 'Nothing Mark. I have to get going actually. I need to find my Dad.'

'Oh ok, see you later then.'

She said goodbye, flashed a quick smile at Vlad and left the cafeteria. It was true, she did have to find her Dad. He had promised they could leave an hour ago, and she was getting tired of watching slayers march up and down corridors.

It was getting late, and the halls were silent. She was rounding the corner towards her Dad's office when she saw him exiting it with a slayer guard in tow.

'Boss, it's been a while now. You said you'd come and deal with it yesterday!'

'Do you know how long it takes to give all them damn shots? And then I forgot I was taking my daughter out to the theatre.'

'He's become even more deranged since his outburst.'

'Well, we can't keep him up here with the rest of them behaving like this, and they've been looking for another subject in the labs anyway.'

Labs? As in laboratories? Her father had never mentioned them before. Anna couldn't imagine why they would need them at a Vamp Camp, unless it was to make the fake blood perhaps?

'That's what we thought Boss. He's already there.'

'Alright, we'll head off now then,' the Warden said, locking his office door.

Anna took a deep breath and followed them quietly down the corridor. Whatever these laboratories were, if they were such a secret then she definitely wanted to see them.

**pagebreakpagebreakpagebreak**

Anna tried to be as quiet as possible as she tailed the slayer and her Dad. She needn't of bothered of course; he father's steps were so loud and heavy he wouldn't have heard an elephant following him. They trudged across the courtyard. Taking out a key card the slayer guard beeped it against the door handle and it opened smoothly. They vanished through it.

Having stayed at the other side of the small concrete square for fear that they might see her, Anna saw the door closing and made a desperate run for it. She caught it by the tips of her fingers and slid inside.

She had entered a corridor similar to the ones in the rest of the camp, and yet different. The walls were white, except they weren't, and the boring florescent lights were having a wail of a time swinging on their wires. They were garish and bright, and yet the corners of the hall were still coated in shadow.

Anna couldn't see her dad anymore, but she could hear his booming voice echoing around her. She cringed at the idea of how angry he would be if he found her in this restricted section (HP3). Deep down she knew the right thing to do was walk out and mind her own business, but curiosity got the better of her, and she knew her dad would never tell her what it was if she asked.

Every step she took made a light patter on the lino tiles. She tried to walk as quietly as she could before she paused at a door. It was shut, but a long vertical pane of glass showed her a dimly lit room with about eight hospital beds pushed up against the wall. When she looked closer she noticed each patient had their arms and legs strapped down, apart from the one closest to her who didn't seem to have any arms at all.

Anna's hand whipped to her mouth in shock. The man in the bed had had his arms removed, and where they had been just two oozing red gashes remained. They hadn't been stitched up or bandaged, just left to drain out onto the bed beneath him.

Anna's eyes flicked to a sign above his bed that read VMP65, which meant at least sixty five vampires were in tied up in rooms like this. She moved as quickly and as quietly as she could to the next room. Eight more beds held eight more patients. Then Anna heard voices and moved to the third room.

The door was open, and through it Anna could see a dimly lit room with only one bed, which looked similar to that of a doctor's surgery. She peeked her head around the door frame as far as she dared and listened.

'Renfield, is it?' said the Warden to himself, grabbing a clip board and skimming the contents. 'So, what's the report?'

A woman in a white coat walked around a rather rotten looking vampire, who was strapped to the bed, unable to move and whispering to himself under his breath.

Anna felt nervous butterflies explode in her chest. This situation, whatever it was, didn't look good.

'With some of the other patients, we managed to interrogate them before, but I don't think we're going to be getting anything intelligible out of this one. Regardless of that, records state he's only been a vampire for less than a year. He wouldn't have any of the knowledge the older vamps have anyway.'

'Any luck with any of the others?'

'We've got one who claims to be one thousand years old, and scientific evidence suggests a similar age, but he still can't tell us how the vampires first developed their UVSs.'

'Evolution, surely,' said Anna's dad, folding his arms.

'But if we only knew what gave them those abilities. When we analyse their muscle mass it is no different from a human's, and yet they can still use super-speed...'

'Well, get started on this one. The more research done the better.'

The woman in the white coat nodded and gave the nurses around her a look, at which they all started getting certain pieces of equipment ready. The nurse nearest to Renfield went immediately towards the vampire, and as the another nurse opened his mouth wide with two metal implements, the first dived in and grasped a tooth with a nasty looking pair of plyers. Renfield's blood curdling scream filling the room, conveniently covering Anna's gasp of horror.

'First we remove the teeth,' said white coat woman, who was clearly some kind of sick doctor. 'They get sent off for analysis. We're still trying to find out what it is about the bite that makes humans turn. It's also a safety procedure. Last week one managed to lunge at a nurse and bit her on the wrist. She had to be put down.'

'Yes, I remember, I signed the paperwork,' said Anna's Dad, completely void of emotion or sympathy. It was like she was watching another person, one who had stolen her father's face. He had never been the lovey-dovey type, but she'd never suspected he had a malicious bone in his body.

Another tooth was yanked out, followed by a scream, and disgustingly a chuckle from the surrounding nurses. The doctor had a smug smile on her face that made Anna feel ill.

Because of this distraction, her reaction wasn't quick enough when her father turned towards the door she was peeking around. He paused for a moment, then his eyes widened and Anna jumped back. She turned to run when a large hand grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back.

'Anna?!'

She tried to shake out of his grip, but he held her firmly.

'Anna, how did you get in here?' He took a quick look through the door. 'Wait for five minutes, then carry on,' he said, snapping it shut.

Anna's eyes were watering, and she could barely see her Dad's face in front of her.

'Anna, honey, listen...

'Dad, no... this is...' but she couldn't seem to formulate any words.

'How much have you seen?' he said carefully.

'I saw... you renching that man's teeth out. I saw a man with oozing holes where his arms should have been... I saw loads of people, strapped down, attached to equipment and wires.'

Her dad sighed. 'It looks much worse than it is, but the thing is Anna, it's all for the greater good. Now we know that a vampire can't re-grow body parts...'

'But he's just been left to drip...'

'We're testing to see if he can continuously produce blood to replace that which he loses. Anna, the research we're doing here could excel the human race beyond what we ever thought was possible. Imagine if we could harness super-speed, or hypnosis. Imagine what we could do with it!'

Anna couldn't formulate any words. She just stood there, shaking her head.

'Anna, think about it. These damn bloodsuckers don't even deserve to be alive. They're demons walking among the living, and they deserve to be dust. They should thank us for not ending their putrid existence.'

He paused for a moment, peering at her. 'I can see you're upset Anna.'

A clunking down came from inside the doctors surgery, and before Anna knew it she was being marched down the corridor towards the exit.

'Dad... these people...'

'Anna, they are not people.' They reached the door and the Warden opened it urgently, pushing her outside.

'I don't want you coming to the camp anymore Anna. You obviously are getting confused about the differences between humans and those things. Go and wait in my office. I'll come in a minute and take you home.'

The distant echo of Renfield's screams filled the corridor once more, then the heavy automatic door shut with a click, leaving her father shut within the gloom.

**This has turned out a wee bit freaky! haha**

**(Regarding the author's insert in the brackets, most of you lovely readers and reviewers can ignore it. The person who it's directed at knows who they are.)**


	7. Anna

Anna handed her identification badge and pass card to the slayer at the reception, who scanned it and opened the gates for her.

'It's been a while since you've been here Anna,' said a slayer she'd met a few times. 'We were wondering where you'd got to.'

Anna smiled and walked into the camp. As soon as she had passed the guards her smile slipped off her face and broke into a thousand pieces on the tarmac. The slayers... all the slayers, were on the side of torture and experimentation. She didn't feel like she could trust any of them anymore.

Her dad least of all. He had been cheerier than ever the last few days, giving her huge hugs and encouraging her to go on expensive and extravagant day trips. That's where he thought she was now. He had given her fifty pounds this morning to go to the nearby theme park, before he had left for a meeting in Sheffield.

Anna had grabbed the opportunity by the throat, and decided to visit the vamp camp once more.

The three days she had spent away from it had been like a mental rollercoaster. She had been shocked and horrified at what she had seen, but after sleeping on it doubt had started to creep in. What if her father was right? They were all vampires, who for years had sucked humans dry and thought nothing of it. They were the evil ones, and anything the slayers were doing was for the good of humanity.

Then she had thought back to that mutilated vampire dripping out into the mattress, and she felt twisted for ever thinking what they were doing was right.

Anna walked assertively down the corridor towards the centre of the camp. Different sections of the facility were open to different people. The slayers had a network of corridors that were entirely their own, which led to observing balconies over courtyards and the cafeteria. The section the vampires were kept in was also open to slayers, except you had to have a special clearance card, which Anna had. It was written across every door that slayers entered at their own risk, because although medicated the vampires could be dangerous. Anna had always kept a small stake inside her jacket, just in case, but now a switchblade she'd swiped out of her father's tool box was there too. The vampires weren't the only ones who could be a threat.

Now she was in the camp she realised she wasn't entirely sure what she was doing there. She felt like someone had to be informed about what was happening behind closed doors, but the highest ranking slayer in the whole camp was her own dad. Anna had cried for a whole night about how horrible it had been, with her dad sitting awkwardly beside her, but his resolve about the situation had not swayed.

If she couldn't talk to the slayer in charge, then who could she speak to?

Then her mind wandered to what her dad had said in his office days before, about the Chosen One; the leader of the vampires.

Could she do that? Could she speak to Vlad about it? Even though she knew what her father was doing was wrong, something in her gut told her that relaying classified slayer information to the head vamp was a betrayal. And what could he do about it after all? He was locked up and medicated like every other bloodsucker in the camp. None of them had the power to do anything even if they wanted to.

Anna eyes began to scan the corridors, searching for him. She passed a pair of skinny bald vampires sitting on a bench in the corridor talking in hushed voices, and another with dreadlocks who was laughing into a wall, but other than that the halls were deserted. She remembered then that they would all be getting their morning blood supplements, and was about to head to the cafeteria when she saw him.

It was the same courtyard in which they'd first spoken to one another. He was sat on a bench on his own, his knees up by his chin. His gaze was directed down at the floor in front of him, where some small weeds with black flowers had started popping their way up through the gravel.

As Anna approached him from the other side of the courtyard his head snapped up and a dazzling grin erupted across his face. She felt her face light up with her most genuine smile in days.

'Hi. What are you doing here on your own?'

'Just having a break from the dead,' Vlad said with a casual laugh.

Anna smiled and sat down beside him. Then she had a closer look at him, and was shocked at how different he looked. The bruises he had had over his left eye and shoulder had almost faded. His faced looked fresher and there was an almost blinding light in his eyes that had barely been a glistening before. He was holding himself differently too. He looked much more relaxed and comfortable. If she hadn't know better she would have said he was any old boy that she was meeting in the park after school, and not the Chosen One of the vampires locked up in a high security camp.

'You seem... different,' she said plainly.

A puzzled look crossed his defined features. 'How so?'

'More... animated.'

Vlad leant back and looked out across the grey garden before them. 'You know, I feel different. My head feels clear for the first time in an age. I don't feel as heavy or... numb. Before it felt like my mind had been shut in a coffin for years with a millions bats flying around.'

Anna looked surprised at the analogy, then laughed. 'You know, it's easy to forget you're a vampire sometimes, until I hear stuff like that.'

Vlad looked sideways at her but smiled.

Anna felt her face flush slightly and looked away from his gaze at the floor. Now she was closer up she noticed that the black flowers weren't black flowers at all, but normal flowers that had withered and died on their stems, their petals drooping towards the grey stones beneath them. She thought this rather odd. Her father had a bright pink fuchsia bush on his office window in an attempt to 'cheer up a place full of walking dead things'. Those flowers were still bright and healthy, despite all the vampires that came and went in there.

Maybe the flowers had been dead before Vlad sat down.

She subconsciously started to pull varnish of the bench whilst trying to think of a way to bring up vampire torture without causing too much shock and outrage. She sighed exasperatedly when no good words came to mind, instead exclaiming. 'This has to be the worst summer ever!'

'Is it summer?'

'It has been for months now!' she said, forgetting there was no way to tell stuck where he was.

'I never liked summer much. There are only a few hours a day when it's safe for me to go outside.'

'Oh, that's what I love about it! Long and lazy days sitting in the park or at the beach.'

Vlad laughed. 'I've never been to the beach,' he said nonchalantly.

Anna laughed for a moment before she realised that he wasn't joking. 'What!? How?'

Vlad shrugged with a smile. 'No, I mean, I've been to the beach, just I've never had a day out at the beach. You know, with ice cream and parasols and swimming.' He sighed with a sad smile. 'Last year I had to fly to this bay near Scarborough, but only because my Dad and sister Ingrid drove to the coast so they could attend his annual Human Darts meeting. Then Ingrid got really mad and tried to drive the hearse over a cliff.'

Anna didn't know what to say to that. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised that their mode of transportation would have been more at home in a funeral procession.

Vlad looked sideways at her puzzled expression. 'There was no sunbathing, let's put it that way. Just stormy seas and crashes of lightning over the waves.'

Anna raised her eyebrows. 'Lightning?'

'When you have a moody and temperamental Count Dracula as your father, storms pretty much follow you everywhere,' Vlad said casually.

'Was he a pain to live with?'

'Yeah...' Vlad said with a chuckle.

A loud buzzer echoed through the rooms inside.

'Well, I'd better go.'

'Well, maybe I'll see you around again?' said Anna, trying to act casual.

Vlad smiled crookedly and bumped his shoulder with hers. 'I'll try to think of some more vamp stories to freak you out in the meantime,' he teased.

Anna opened her mouth in outrage and tried to defend herself. 'I am not freaked out!' Then she paused and bumped her shoulder back at him, the contact feeling completely natural and at the same time making her tingle all over. 'It's just that having a vampire for a friend is very... different. But I like talking to you.'

He smiled. 'Me too.'

He stood up and walked back into the camp building. She watched him go, then leant back on her chair and looked up at the sky. Well that window of opportunity was well and truly shut!

It was strange. All her life she has been taught not to trust vampires; that they were evil. But Vlad's behaviour was like any other human.

Could she trust him with the truth, and if so should she tell it? She still didn't know the answer yet.

**(Ms. X: I didn't mean to upset you... ok maybe I did, but let's not argue! The wording of your comment just seemed obtrusive to me and a little demanding. And I'm not the kind of person who ignores things - I like to get my opinion across. Anyway, let's just forget about it and enjoy our reading/writing! :D )**

**(P.S. Also Ms. X, sorry for deleting your reviews - I always appreciate reviews but I don't like having negativity on there. Also it means everyone else has the chance to get annoyed because they don't know what the hell I'm talking about haha.)**

****Vlad felt normal, which was really rather odd...

When he tried to focus on a sound, there was no muffled feeling like a layer of wool had been draped over his ears. He could hear the sound of an insect hovering over a withering dish of fruit in the kitchens. He could hear the sound of a dog barking in the park a mile down the road. More importantly, if he stayed perfectly still and really tried to listen, he could hear the soft thud, thud, thud of the guards' hearts pumping up and down in their chests. Vlad felt like he was waking up from a very long and disturbed dream, and was just starting to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

He heard the tramping feet of the slayer guards long before they appeared around the corner, their UV guns clicking against their belts as they marched along. Three slayers stopped at the end of the lunch bench that Vlad was sitting on and a row of aged looking vampires looked up at them from their beakers of fake blood.

'Vladimir Dracula, it's time for your analysis session.'

'But it's the wrong day...'

'Never you mind what day it is!' said the tallest guard, grabbing Vlad by the sleeve and wrenching him up.

Vlad's stomach knotted at the prospect of an early UVS analysis session. A surge of power seemed had sprung up on him over the last few days. His hearing and sight had become heightened. His sense of smell, which had been practically non-existent before, had shot through the roof, making the pungent scent from the armpits of the slayer holding him particularly nauseating. As he was led out of the canteen every shift and flex of muscle felt snappy and quick. For the first time in months and months he felt like a vampire again.

Realisation hit him like a collapsing coffin lid and he stopped alive in his tracks. He thought back to the Monday before when he had been for his shot. He had held out his arm, and the nurse had prepared the needle, but it had never gone in. It was unbelievable that he hadn't noticed, and even more so that they hadn't!

And he had to make sure they didn't realise still. What had happened was a once in an immortalities chance for Vlad to regain his powers properly. There was the potential to get out...

The camp was heavily guarded and controlled, but their security relied on the fact that the vampires had none of their powers. He could use that.

Vlad felt the resolve harden in his un-beating heart. He was going to get out, or be dusted trying.

But now they were leading him off for analysis, and if the slayers realised all heaven would break loose. Even more so because he was the Chosen One; they would freak! He'd probably be dragged of to be given some extreme dosage, and garlic knows what that would do to the clouds in his brain.

When Vlad thought about it though, the UVS analysis sessions weren't to detect if the shots were working properly, and they didn't pick up on it. He'd had one when he'd been dragged to the camp in fang-cuffs and it had had the same reading after he'd been dosed up a day later. If he could get through it without them noticing he'd have the chance to get out, before his jab the following Monday.

The slayer behind him wasn't looking where he was going and bumped hard into Vlad, who was still stopped in the middle of the hallway.

'Uhh! Come on you Biter, keep moving!'

The sweaty slayer gave a tug on Vlad's arm and he followed again. The group turned a few corners onto the Warden's corridor. Vlad's stomach felt like a million bats were whizzing around on a rollercoaster. A flicker of hope for the future had appeared out of nowhere, and he had no idea what he would do if it was taken away.

They walked on towards the Warden's office, then surprisingly turned and walked right past it.

'Um, aren't we meant to go in there?' Vlad said, trying to point.

The slayers exchanged glances and said nothing, instead leading him out into a courtyard Vlad had never been in before.

'What's going on?'

Again silence.

'Will you stake-breathed slayers tell me where we're going?'

Even the insult didn't provoke them, but the one holding Vlad looked shifty.

'Doctor Drew wants to see you.'

'Shhhh! You don't need to tell the biter anything, leave that to the doc,' said the slayer up front.

'But Steve, he kept asking...'

'Quiet!'

'Who the bloody bats is Doctor Drew?'

Sweaty opened his mouth, but a sharp look from the lead slayer stopped any words from falling out. So-called-slayer-Steve turned back to the front. 'Don't worry bloodsucker, you'll find out soon enough.'

They crossed the small concrete courtyard, then stopped in front of a heavy metal door. A moment later Steve had opened it, pulled Vlad inside and swung the door shut with a metallic bang. Vlad felt the sharp jab of a needle in his arm, then his mind became gloom.


	8. Vlad is Taken

**Sorry about the long gap between updates. I really haven't liked writing this chapter, and I don't think it's liked being written much either. The words just haven't been flowing, so sorry if it feels a little rushed or anything.**

**Anyway, thanks for the reviews and enjoy!**

Vlad woke up strapped to a chair.

It felt a little like the old dentist's chair Renfield had kept in the school for when their fangs were giving them jip. Instead of a tooth drill Vlad could hear chattering voices around him, and something that sounded like the clattering of cutlery. A light was swinging lazily overhead, with such a glare Vlad immediately shut his eyes again.

His head was spinning like a bat in a blender, and his limbs felt heavy. Someone had tied his arms down with something that felt like fabric straps. They'd be able to keep a breather tied down, but Vlad would be able to break through them like they were strawberry laces.

His eyes still closed, he tried to take in the situation. He could hear three heart beats in the room with him, two of which seemed to be standing beside him.

'You know, it looks a bit like a friend of mine,' said a woman's voice.

'Oh yeah?' replied a man on the other side of Vlad's chair.

'Yeah. If it had a slightly longer nose, and longer hair, and darker skin, and a bit more podge around the cheek area...'

'So, not similar at all then...'

'No, they are. It's something about the eyes...'

'They're shut.'

'Eye lashes then! They have a similar angle.'

'You're not making any sense.'

'Rob, have you finished cleaning those or what? It'll wake up soon, then the fun can begin!'

'You're not meant to enjoy doing this,' said the man, his tone rather flat. 'This work is necessary...'

'Blah blah blah, for the benefit of the human race, blah. It's just an excuse to inflict some pain on these vile creatures.'

'Marie, the Slayer's Guild has learnt a lot of valuable information from dissecting these vamp..'

Dissect? The word sent shivers shooting down Vlad's spine. The room was blurred as he opened his eyes to try and see where the bats he was and what they were doing to him. Two slayers at the end of the chair came into focus, each wearing a pair of freshly ironed scrubs.

The scrubs called Rob looked over as Vlad tried to sit up. Vlad met his gaze and offered a 'what in heaven is going on' look. The man just went back to cleaning a rather nasty looking set of instruments.

The woman stopped to peer at Vlad for a moment, then went back to laying needles on a tray.

'You're right. It doesn't look anything like her... Poppy has brown eyes...'

'Wait, it was a woman you were talking about?'

'Oh brilliant, it's awake!'

The third heart beat came striding into view with a dramatic flourish of her white coat.

'So this is the Chosen One! I've been trying to persuade them to give it to me for ages! This will be fascinating.'

He eyes were scanning Vlad's face and body, analysing every part of him like a butcher deciding which part to start chopping at.

'Why now then?' Marie asked.

'The Warden mentioned it, something about an increase in his powers, and we've finally found the part of the vampire's brain that controls them. Before the last vamp popped his clogs we were making fantastic progress!' Her eyes flashed as they met Vlad's. 'I'm hoping this one will last a bit longer.'

Vlad blinked, keeping his face as neutral as he could. 'Who the bats are you people?'

Marie turned to look at him, disgust seeping out of her expression. 'Be quiet.'

Vlad complied, instead having a quick tug at the bindings. He only pulled enough to make them stretch slightly and not completely break. None of the slayers knew he had his powers back yet, and he wanted to keep it that way. Sitting up as much as he could, he saw the door, only a few paces away. Amazingly it was open.

'Keep still,' the doctor said harshly, and all of a sudden a flash of purple light filled the room. Vlad cried out as white hot pain shot through his body, and when the light had faded a smoking cut had been left on his hip.

'They'll be more off that if you're not quiet.'

Vlad clenched his teeth. The UV beam of light had left his clothing untouched, but a red stain was starting to spread slowly underneath.

'What are you...'

Another beam of light, this time directed at his arm. Vlad winced, but kept his mouth shut. There was no point trying to reason with them. They obviously didn't consider him a person. Vlad had lived his whole life knowing that vampires were hated by most people who knew about them, but the way these slayers were treating him was something else.

'Is the equipment ready?' the white coated woman asked.

'Yes, and the monitors on standby.'

'Excellent. I'm going to nip upstairs and get the forms, then we can begin.'

The doctor swished out of the room, leaving her two bored looking colleges behind. Marie's eyes slid to Vlad's, who was trying to size her up. If he could get one of them close enough to hypnotise, he could get passed the other one and make a dash for it, then hope he could find the way out into the normal part of the camp, then find a way to get past the guards, and the fencing and security...

The slither of hope Vlad had inside started to fade. It sounded impossible.

But then again, it was better to be staked trying to escape than die strapped to a chair.

Marie's gaze flicked away from Vlad to a switch by his bed. Vlad saw Rob open his mouth, but before he could speak she had flicked it and a quick beam of light had shot down, hitting Vlad on his thigh.

He didn't cry out this time, but winced as pain burned through his leg.

'Marie! What are you doing?'

The smirking woman ignored him. 'Did that hurt, bloodsucker?'

Another flash of light and smoke rose again from Vlad's body. He tried to hold it in, but his body jerked with the pain. Marie's smile broadened.

'It picks out a place at random,' Marie said, her eyes dancing. 'It could be your hand next, or your chest... or your eyes!'

She flicked it again and the beam of light shot into the chair above Vlad's shoulder.

'Oh, close that time.'

'Marie, you're not meant to do that,' Rob said, who had moved around the chair to stand between her hand and the switch. 'It's against regulations to...'

'You're such a stake-joy Rob, have a bit of fun for a once!'

'Doctor Drew will want to know what you've been doing.'

'She won't care, she does worse to them anyway.'

This was as good an opportunity as any, and Vlad took it. He snapped his hands and feet out of the bindings before the two slayers could even look round. One side of the chair was clear, but instead he swung over to the side they were standing on and gave them a good hard push. They toppled into each other, sending metallic implements flying everywhere.

Their outraged cries filled the air.

'He shouldn't be able to do that!'

Vlad leapt swiftly over them, but was brought to the ground with a smack as a hand closed around his ankle. He had overestimated how powerful he was. He still had barely any super-speed, and his head was woozy from the drugs they'd used to knock him out.

Vlad span around on the floor and tried to kick away. Marie had a firm grip, and she was holding on for dear life. She pulled herself up and on top of him, pinning him to the ground.

'Rob, quick! Grab the tranquiliser!'

There was a scuffling behind her as Rob tried to get up, and panic zipped up and down Vlad's body a few times, having a little internal scuff of its own.

'Get off me!'

'I won't let you get out, leech!'

'I'm getting out, you sick-minded freak! There's no way I'm letting that woman dissect me!'

'I'm sick!?' she said, her voice shrill. 'You're very existence is sick. The fact that I'm even touching you makes me want to hurl!'

She had a tight grip on Vlad's throat, her other hand grappling with Vlad's arm, with his other pinned under her leg.

'Rob! Quickly!'

Vlad let out a snarl, and summoning all his strength shoved Marie to the side. She made another grab for him, but he was too quick and delivered her a sharp blow to the eye that sent her sprawling across the floor.

Then he got up and ran.

'He didn't bite you did he?'

'No, he just punched me... Rob get after him... go!'

Vlad was in the corridor and sprinting for his life. He heard a scuffling behind him, but no sound of immediate pursuit.

He could see a door at the end, with thankfully just a handle to pull to get out.

'What!?' screamed the doctors voice as Vlad slipped through the door and into the courtyard outside.

He was out, but was still trapped. It was now or never, and as he ran across the concrete yard he could think of only one person who could held him.


	9. Cupboard Friendship

Vlad was running, and even at breather pace it felt amazing. He zoned his hearing into the corridors in front of him to check if the coast was clear and ran as fast as he could. He knew now it was either flight or submission, but there was no way he would be able to find a way out of the camp on his own. Armed guards patrolled the perimetres constantly and the bars where made from thick argintalium.

The only thing he could think of now was Anna. She was his only chance.

Vlad tried to search for a smell or a heartbeat that would tell him she was near. He could hear footsteps in the distance behind him, and quickened his pace, his vampire speed already starting to wake itself up after a year of enforced rest.

Then he heard her. The strong thumping sound of her heart and the light patter of her shoes down the corridors, her footfall lighter than the slayers' heavy boots.

He sprinted round bends and down a small staircase, around a corner and there she was.

**pagebreakpagebreakpagebreak**

Anna had been in a complete world of her own, and so was utterly bewildered when she saw Vlad speed into view.

'Anna!' and quick as a flash his arms were gripping her shoulders as she took in the panic etched across his face. He gulped, trying to recover himself. 'Anna, you have to help me. I... I need to get out of here.'

'What?'

'They tried... they were going to do all these things to me.' He let go of her and tried to recover himself. 'I tried to say no, they kept... but I managed to get out, and now they're after me, and I don't know what to do. Please Anna, I can't stay here any longer. I don't know what they're going to do to me...'

Anna tried to get a grip of what he was saying. 'Ok, Vlad. Calm down.'

'No Anna! We don't have time. They'll be coming after me right now!'

'Ok, listen, errr' and she looked around quickly before spotting a cupboard marked 'Caretakers'. 'Quick, get in here,' she said, and before he could object she had grabbed him and put him in the cupboard. She was about to close the door when Vlad's eyes flashed.

'They're coming!'

Quick as a flash she had been pulled into the cupboard with him and the door had shut with a click.

Anna momentarily stopped breathing for what felt like hours, until the thump of guard's boots ran past them. She let out a long breath, causing Vlad to let out a muffled chuckle as it tickled his chin.

'Shhhh!' she said, smiling. The cupboard was completely black, and Anna's heart fluttered.

In the dark with a vampire.

'Don't worry,' Vlad said, putting his hand on her arm.

'Do you think we can get out now?'

'No, there are more coming.'

'Vlad,' she said in a hushed whisper, 'what's going on?'

She felt him relax slightly.

'They... I was having lunch and these slayers said I had to have my UVS levels analysed, but instead they took me to this... it could have been a hospital, but garlic, Anna, it was more like some kind of torture chamber...'

Anna felt her breath hitch in her throat and her eyes widen in the gloom. They had taken Vladimir there! To that horrible place where they pulled out teeth and cut off arms. She felt her other hand jump up to grasp his shoulder, checking everything was still there.

'What did they do to you?'

'Nothing... I managed to get out, but from what they were saying they wanted to perform some kind of experiments on me.'

'Oh God...' Anna was appalled. She should of told him, then he might of known what was actually happening.

She gripped his shoulder tighter and gulped. 'The other day, I followed my...these slayers through a door into a secret section of the camp. They had lines of vampires in there, all being experimented on differently. I watched this doctor start to torture one of them...'

There was silence for a moment as her words trailed away.

'What happened?'

'They caught me and said I wasn't allowed back in the camp anymore. They're all in on it Vlad! No one else seems to realise how barbaric it is. I came back because I wanted to warn you, but then I never got the chance... and now they've taken you there too!'

'Anna, it's alright,' he said fiercely, then his arms circled around her and pulled her into a hug.

Anna froze for a moment, then relaxed against him and hugged him back. She felt like crying. She didn't know what to do or who to trust. Now a vampire had her wrapped in a tight embrace. A vampire was pressing his mouth into the crook of her neck, and yet she had never felt more comforted in her entire life. Shut in there together, they were the only two who knew or cared about the horrific things the slayers were doing, and the only ones who wanted to stop them.

Silence was in there with them for a moment, then Anna felt Vlad's lips move in the dark.

'I think it's safe.'

Anna heard a click of his fingers and the door swung open.

Vlad broke away from her and gave her a long look, checking she was alright.

'You know I don't appreciate being shoved into cupboards,' he said with a small smile.

She looked apologetic, then narrowed her eyes at him. 'Hang on, you sleep in coffins!'

Vlad laughed. 'Yeah, good point.'

He was about to get out when Anna grabbed his arm and stared at him.

'Wait, did you just opened the door by snapping your fingers?'

Vlad looked down at his hand in surprise. 'I didn't even notice.'

'What's going on? How did you do that?'

Vlad looked at Anna, trying to predict how she would react.

'Er... my vampire powers are sort of... coming back. I missed a shot, just by accident. I didn't even notice until I realised I could hear and smell things properly again.'

Anna didn't know what to say. She had just been shut in a cupboard with an unmediated vampire, with his mouth at her throat.

'Anna?'

'I...'

Vlad took a quick look down the corridor, then grabbed the cupboard door and swung it shut on them again. Anna felt a lot more comfortable knowing he couldn't see the expression on her face, but she could still feel herself trembling slightly. She didn't know what to do.

'Anna, it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you or anything. Please, I know it might be... scary, but I need your help.'

'But... what if... you could of hypnotised me for all I know!'

Vlad was silent for a moment. 'I haven't.'

Anna was annoyed with herself for believing him.

More heavy boots ran past the cupboard, and there was a muffled buzzing sound from a walky-talky. She moved closer to Vlad on instinct and wanted to stake herself for doing so.

'Please Anna, I don't know who else to trust.'

His hand came up to grip her shoulder, then on impulse she moved forward and pulled him into a hug again, resting her head against his chest.

'Me neither.'

**Let me know what you think! I'm running out of juice for this fic I need inspiring haha :D**


	10. Determination

Vlad and Anna broke apart from their embrace when a loud alarm reverberated down the corridor. Anna pushed open the closet door and blood-red flashes of light hit them from all sides. The entire camp had gone into red alert.

'That's because of you, isn't it?'

Vlad nodded, following her as she walked out into the corridor.

Anna looked down at the empty corridor, alive with a dozen warning lights. Lately she had been questioning everything that she had always taken for granted. Now it felt like all the mud was being washed away by a tidal wave of water, crisp and clear.

Vlad was right. The only people they could trust and rely on were each other. Vlad was a rock in this whirling sea of moral madness. He was a vampire, but that was irrelevant now. They were friends, and friends didn't let each other be experimented on!

She knew now. It was all wrong, all of it! She had felt guilty for not being a normal slayer; one who despised vampires and liked to see them reduced to prisoners. She had been brought up living in fear of the evil vampires that her slayer father had heroically fought against. Vampires had been a real life danger, and when they had been rounded up and put into the Vamp Camps, everyone had breathed a sigh of relief and got on with their lives. They didn't think about how horrific it was to imprison a whole race who had no control over what they were. Vampires weren't human, but they definitely were people.

Vlad was a person, and Anna was going to do whatever she could to protect him.

Anna turned around and took the vampire's hand.

'I'm getting you out. We're getting out of here, then we're going to end this. Not just the torture, all of it.'

Vlad's eyes widened in surprise. 'You mean...'

'These Vamp Camps are wrong Vlad, and we are going to do something about it.'

They held hands as waves of red light flashed around them and deafening alarms buzzed in their ears.

Then they ran.

**Just a little chapter, but I promise there's more to come! Sorry for the gap in updating, but it's the summer and holiday time blah blah blah.**

**Thank you for all the encouraging reviews, it's so nice to know people appreciate the time I'm putting into this. Hope you all enjoyed! :)**

**P.S. If you guys can't bear waiting for your Vlad fix I have written a few other Young Dracula fanfics... you should check them out. ;)**


	11. Disguise

'I wish they would turn off these damn alarms! They're making my headache worse.'

'They're on for a reason though.'

'What reason?'

'Level 1 emergency it says. That means one of the vamps has escaped, but I don't know, there's not much being said over the radios.'

'Why not?!'

'I don't know, do I!'

As far as Vlad could hear there were only two of them, and they were more than a little stressed. He was crouched with Anna outside the security office, hidden behind a large filing cabinet. One patrol of slayers had ran past them, but they had been too busy to even cast a glance at where the two were hidden.

Vlad had been trying to listen in to the slayer's conversation in the office. It was odd getting used to the new depths of sound that he was experiencing. One of the slayers had the slight rasping breath of a smoker, and the other one had a slight twitch and kept shifting irritably from one foot to the other. Beyond that he could hear a woman in the car park arguing on her phone about something to do with chicken dippers, and a cyclist whirring through the air as he sped down a hill towards some traffic lights...

Anna shifted uncomfortably beside him. 'Let's just make a break for it, the longer we wait the worse it's gonna get.'

Their position wasn't going to last long. CCTV cameras were on every corridor, and their location would surely get out to the patrols soon enough. Although they would recognise Vlad instantly on the cameras, Anna hoped to garlic that the slayers wouldn't know her, as she had put up her hood since running out of the cupboard.

From their place behind the cabinets they could just see the exit. Not only were there two guards manning the control office, but six more slayers were standing outside it, each holding a UV gun and an argentalium spray canister.

'One shot from those guns and I reckon I'm dust.'

'One shot?'

'I dunno, they're extra strength,' he said, peering at their label.

Anna thought about Vlad beside her, then imagined hoover dust in a pile on the floor. A loud bang of a door reverberated through the corridor and Anna jumped to her feet in shock.

For some reason she felt much more confident standing on her feet. 'Let's just do it.'

She pushed open the reception door and walked assertively in. It would of been a rather large room if it hadn't been for the boxes and boxes full of stakes, guns and garlic gas that were piled high against the walls. Anna would of called it a vampire's worst nightmare if she hadn't seen those horrific dissection rooms. One slayer was sat at a computer in front of notice board littered with slayer propaganda posters, and the other was sitting on his desk with his feet on his chair, rubbing a cigarette packet absentmindedly.

Anna recognised the latter as the same guard from earlier, and he smiled as her as she walked in.

'Anna, what are you after?' His name was trickling back to her. Something like Mark, or Michael?

'Brian!'

Brian? Close enough.

'What!?'

'What are we supposed to be doing?'

Brian didn't even bother looking around at his panicking colleague. 'I. Don't. Know!'

'Well you're not being very helpful you know!'

'What do you want me to say? I know just as much as you do.'

Anna opened her mouth to say something, but was quickly cut across by the slayer at computer. He was clearly very on edge, and from the look of it Brian was close to cracking.

'Oh garlic! Oh garlic oh garlic oh garlic oh garlic.'

'What is it Pete!?' said Brian, attempting to take a measured breath.

'They've just changed the security status of the camp to lockdown. We've got to reinforce all the gates and I haven't booted up the program for that in garlic knows how long...'

Brian sprang up from his desk and turned to face Pete. 'What!? You were meant to update the security system last week!'

'Don't you dare have a go at me after that stunt you pulled yesterday with the files on vampire voodoo...'

Anna felt a cool touch on her arm and her skin tingled all over. She twisted to see a very perplexed looking Vlad poking his head shyly around her. The two slayers were so unbelievably stressed and distracted they hadn't even noticed him.

'Get it running Pete! If we don't do it sharpish they will be an enquiry again...'

'It's loading! But until the system recognises the program the reinforced argentalium doors won't close!'

'Oh for Pete's sake...'

'What did you call me?!'

Brian was grabbing his hair like he wanted to wrench it from his scalp. 'You are driving me crazy! Just get it installed, I need a fag!' His grip closed around his cigarette packet and he turned towards the door.

It looked like he had forgotten Anna was even there, but the shock in his eyes wasn't from seeing her. He looked Vlad up and down, then he retreated as quickly as he could, his hand reaching for a pocket stake. Then his legs hit the side of his chair and he was falling back over it, landing with a thud on the scratched lino.

Pete was frozen fast to his chair, and for a moment no one moved. Then Pete was pouncing for the nearest box of UV guns. His hands found one, but before he could even switch it on Vlad had jumped at him and wrestled it out of his hands. The contents of two boxes went flying across the room as Vlad held Pete pinned up against the wall.

Pete was struggling and yelling various vampiric insults. Most blurred into a mess of inaudible panic, but Vlad was pretty sure he was called a 'sun shy blood Nazi'. That one was new.

Vlad fixed him with a stare and the guard's whole body went limp.

'You're not going to remember any of this. None of this is real. You're not at work, you're at home in bed and you need to get back to sleep. Go to sleep.'

Pete sunk down to the ground and within ten seconds he was a curled up ball of sleeping slayer.

Vlad span around to where Anna was dealing with Brian. His legs were still trapped in his upturned office chair, and his arms and neck were pinned down in a tight and unyielding grip.

'Anna, get off me! What are you doing?'

He looked across at Vlad as he walked over, and at the slumped body of Pete of the floor.

'He's bitten him! Oh my garlic, he's bitten him! Anna, why are you...'

'He's been hypnotised, you stupid lump.' She looked up at Vlad and they shared a quick smile. 'Was that hard?'

'Hum, I'm still having to fight off a bit of the brain fog, but it worked!' he said with a toothy grin. 'What do we do now?'

Anna had an idea. 'Tell him to take of his clothes.'

Vlad just looked at her.

'Trust me, ok?'

Vlad's brain clicked into sync with hers. 'Is that going to work?'

'Well, it can't hurt.'

Brian was looking between them and listening to their conversation with absolute horror. He was writhing on the floor, and even when Vlad leant down next to him the slayer still wouldn't look the vampire in the eye. Brian was scanning his gaze up and over everything, as far away from Vlad as he could look.

'Brian! We're not going to hurt you, just cooperate!' Anna said, trying to shake him through her grip on his windpipe.

'Brian!' Vlad grabbed the guard's head and swivelled it around to meet his gaze.

'You're feeling very tired. Forget everything that' just happened and curl up here. You want to fall into a lovely dream, but first you want to give me your clothes.


	12. The Escape

**Btw sorry for the long wait between the other two chapters... was it long? I dunno but I was on holiday for a week then I ****_had _****to re-watch all of Code Geass. I hope you liked though and are still liking.**

**And the lovely comments! Seriously they're so inspiring thank you. Enjoy!**

Vlad shrugged into the green camo jacket and pulled on the heavy black boots.

'Just leave those here,' Anna said, gesturing to his white Vamp Camp clothes. Vlad picked them up with incredibly obvious distaste, but then shook them out and laid them over the almost naked Brian snoring beneath him.

'So considerate.'

'I know,' he said with a grin.

'You still look like a vampire though.'

'Why?'

Anna cocked her head to the side. 'I dunno, maybe it's because I _know_ you're a vampire.'

'You're so prejudiced, judging me just on the type of teeth that I have.'

'What can you do,' she said with a shrug, prompting him to smile again. Anna looked him up and down, trying to hide the appreciation in her eyes. Now he looked less like an asylum patient and more like a wonderfully deadly soldier. His baggy white clothes were gone and the uniform fit him perfectly.

He straightened out his collar and pulled the slayer's cap down over his black hair.

'That helps... a bit.'

They walked towards the window where people's badges were scanned and tried to peer at the slayers outside without being spotted. Darkness had long since closed in around the camp, and the grass in front of the gate was ablaze with floodlights.

Vlad looked thoughtful. 'Any weapons they have will only hurt me...'

Anna paused for a minute. 'I dunno, getting sprayed with extra-pungent garlic gas wouldn't be that nice for either of us.'

Vlad nodded. 'We just scan our badges to get out don't we?'

'Yeah, there's a scanner against the wall.' Another pause. 'Vlad, if you can super-speed once we open the gates, then I can just walk out a bit later and pretend to be none the wiser.'

'I'm not that fast at the moment, that's the thing.'

'Ok, well...' Anna's sentence was chased away by the sound of the gate opening. A large looking figure waddled out onto the grass to join the six slayers posted there.

'Flying stakes! That's my Dad!' whispered Anna, and they both tried to conceal themselves even more behind the window frame.

'I forgot he was your Dad,' said Vlad, almost to himself.

'What?'

Vlad paused for so long Anna started to get a jist of what immortality felt like.

'Your Dad is in on it, isn't he?' Vlad's deep-set eyes met hers. 'He must be the one instigating it. He's the Warden after all.'

Anna cringed internally. 'He... he was the one I followed to the torture chamber.'

Vlad wore a deep frown, but his voice was rather light. 'Anna, it wasn't a torture _chamber..._'

'It might as well of been.'

She wasn't standing for any excuses now. It was like someone had pushed her into a lake as clear as crystal, and now her mind was too. All that doubting, worrying that she was wrong to be friends with Vlad because of his vampiric state. Her father was wrong, and she was looking at him now through a completely new lens. He _was_ the instigator of those horrific things she had seen, and in her mind she couldn't separate him from those images.

'He runs this stupid camp and all those horrible things. For that I think I might hate him.'

'Anna...'

'He's always told me what horrible creatures vampires are, but I've never heard of vampires doing anything as cruel as what I saw.'

Vlad didn't know what to say to that, but was saved by the head of Anna's dad popping up at the reception window.

'Oh,' the Warden said. 'I don't think I know you.'

Vlad's eyes were as wide as saucers. 'I'm filling in. Brian's... not feeling too well.' He glanced to his side to where Anna was standing, and realised that she wasn't. She was crouching down beneath the window.

'I'll come in, I need to talk to you about the security.'

Before Vlad could stop him he was scanning his own card against the scanner and striding through the gate.

'We can't let him see the sleeping slayers!' Anna hissed at Vlad, tugging his trouser leg.

Vlad felt his muscles tense, and in the blink of an eye he was at the reception door.

'You super-sped!' Anna whispered, looking almost relieved. 'Get out as soon as you can. I'll meet you in the park across the road.'

Vlad nodded and walked out to meet the Warden in the hallway.

'What's going on with the reinforced gates? They should be down by now,' said the Warden, folding his chubby arms across his chest.

'Yeah, about that...' said Vlad, scratching the hair underneath his cap and trying as much as he could to pull the hat down over his features, in case the Warden recognised him. 'Pete's in there trying to run the program, but there's a bit of trouble with the computers speed...'

'We need the gates down right now!' His voice was getting sterner by the minute.

'I was just going to tell the guys outside actually...' Vlad walked past the Warden towards the exit, then realised with horror that he didn't know where Brian's card was.

'Hang on a minute!' the Warden said, turning to look at Vlad. 'I've just told them what's going on. We need to get this gate system...'

'Dad!'

As soon as her Dad's back had turned, Anna had slipped out of the reception door and ran around the corner. She came striding up now looking like she'd just been for a happy stroll through the camp.

'Huh? Anna, what in the name of all that is wooden and pointy are you doing here?'

'Dad I...'

'Didn't I tell you specifically not to come back here? And at this time of night!'

'Ok, I'm sorry! But I just thought I'd...'

'Enough. I don't need any of you excuses. You're leaving. Now.'

'Are you coming too?'

'I can't, there's a bit of a crisis here at the moment...'

'Yeah I heard all the alarms and stuff, what's going on?'

'Never you mind...' The Warden pushed past Vlad and swiped his card against the wall. He placed his hands firmly on his daughter's shoulders and steered her through the open gate.

Anna pulled a face at Vlad, telling him to follow. He walked out behind them, but the Warden decided to stop just outside of the gate, and so as the gate closed Vlad was stuck between that and the Warden's wobbling form. He was through the hard part, he knew that. There was another wall that lined the edge of the grass surrounding the camp, but Vlad could see even in the dark that the gate in it wouldn't be hard to get through.

Really, he should of been absolutely ecstatic at the fact that he was nearly out of the camp, but a tingling dread of recapture had settled in his bones. He wasn't safe yet.

That thought had just crossed his mind when another louder and longer alarm screamed over their heads.

'Huh? What?' said the Warden, peering up at a flashing light above his head. All the other slayers turned, guns at the ready, and moved away from the gate as well. Vlad followed suit.

'What's going on? What's that alarm for?' said one of the slayers in a deep voice.

'Does that mean the reinforced gates have been switched on?' said another.

'Do none of you know what the hell is going on?' screamed the Warden.

The smallest of the slayer guards shifted his gun to one side and frowned. 'I do, but I don't get it. The gate's got a body-heat sensor installed. That alarm goes off whenever a moving, humanoid shaped thing passes through that doesn't produce body-heat.'

'So in other words, a vampire,' said the guard standing next to the small one.

The Warden was standing there shaking his head. 'But the only people who came through the gate just now were me, Anna and...'

There was a pause more deadly silent than a vampire in a sun bed. Every pair of eyes came to rest on Vlad.

Anna's heart was hammering in her chest and her mind was whizzing within her. Vlad's face turned into an awkward smile, which to her looked utterly adorable, but to the slayers around them was more like a pearly-white threat.

The group was bewitched in a stunned silence, but Anna knew it wouldn't last for long. She had to do something.

'Eeeeek!' she squealed. 'A vampire!'

With all her might she pushed her Dad out of Vlad's way. Being as fat and bumbling as he was he stumbled backwards into some of the slayers. Vlad took the chance, and as his gun fell to the floor with a clatter he sped past the slayers.

He was fast, but not obscenely fast. Anna held her breath as she watched him near to the outside gate. He had just reached it when a loud whirring noise started beside her. One of the slayers had moved quickly, and a long and purple beam of light shot in the direction of Vlad. Anna heard him cry out, and watched as his floodlight-illuminated figure fell to its knees just in front of the gate.

She felt sick. He was going to be caught, and maybe they would just execute him and be done with it.

The Warden had gathered himself by now, and Anna heard his voice telling the slayer to fire again.

The whirring sound of the slayers gun started beside her as it charged for another shot. She had to think fast.

'Wait!'

Grabbing Vlad's discarded gun she hitched it into firing position in her arms.

'Don't worry, I'll zap him!' she cried.

She ran as fast as she could towards Vlad, promting her dad to scream out her name behind her. The whirring sound started from a different gun, causing the Warden to scream louder still.

'Don't fire you fools! You might hit Anna!'

'But she's not a vampire sir...'

'Oh yes, of course not... then fire! fire!'

Anna felt panic flare within her, but then she watched as Vlad picked himself up, wrenched open the gates and sped off into the gloom.

A smile lit up on her face and sent happiness blazing through her whole body. He was out!

'I'll get him Dad, don't worry!' she shouted over her shoulder, and leaving the brightly lit Vamp Camp she followed her accomplice off into the gloom.

**He's out! Yeyyyyyyy!**

**This chapter doesn't flow brilliantly m'fraid, but I'm tired and it'll have to do haha.**


	13. In a bit of a pickle

Hello… I'm back!

Thank you to those people who reviewed and encouraged me to continue this.

'Update' comment though, bit cheeky and demanding... I am doing this for free you know!? Hahaha

I've been told I have to write more regularly anyway, so this isn't a waste of time, like I had convinced myself if was!

To be honest, I might of continued it earlier if all my documents weren't 200 miles away. It's a long story…

… Anyway here's the next chapter, enjoy!

Vlad was out. He was out he was out he was out he was out he was out!

Nothing had ever felt this good! After months, endless months of being stuck in that prison he had escaped, and was in normal streets, running past cars and trees and houses.

He could feel the wind on his face and wrenched off his slayer cap to let it run fully through his hair. The damp earthy smell of the night went singing through his nose, almost as fantastic a feeling as the relief that was zipping through him.

Of course, he wasn't safe yet, and probably never would be again, but he let his mind run free of that and soak up the moment. He was out, and he was never going back. He would stake himself and be dust flying freely on the wind before they captured him again.

Vlad's super speed had long ago slowed to breather pace, which was slowing now to a walk. The UV wound in his side was leeching away at his strength, and he doubled over as a stab of pain shot through him. He had to find somewhere to sit for a moment and let his body heal.

The pavement he was on ran parallel to the park Anna had said to meet in. Vlad found the nearest entrance and walked as briskly as he could into a gloomy patch of trees. He found a large one and slumped down against it.

Leaning his head back he closed his eyes and took in the sounds around him, most of which were coming from the slayer camp. The alarm was still screaming its head off, and frantic orders were being shouted around the entrance. Then Vladimir heard the footfall of a single relatively light person sprinting along the pavement he himself just ran down.

'Anna!' Vlad called as he heard her approach, and was horrified by the pained croak that echoed from his throat. He tried again, and heard her steps halt abruptly.

'Vladimir?'

She hopped lightly over the stone wall and ran towards him. Anna had ran as quickly as she could from the camp, but she didn't have much of a head start on her Dad and the rest of the slayers. She and Vlad couldn't stay there.

Vlad looked very strange sitting against a tree in a dark park dressed as a slayer. His vampiric countenance looked at odds with his army style clothing. He was clutching his side tightly, and every so often winced in what was obviously pain, but that discomfort hadn't managed to kill the dazzling grin smothered across his face.

Anna was extremely perplexed for a moment, but then the situation seemed to sink in.

'So, how does it feel?' she said with a grin to match his.

'You have no idea!'

'I don't think I've ever seen you look this happy,' Anna said, kneeling down. 'And that's saying something, considering you have a gapping hole in your chest.' She reached out a hand to try and get a better look, but Vlad batted her away.

'I know I'm nowhere near safe, and this probably isn't the best of situations to be in…'

'Not really,' Anna said, still smiling.

'I feel like I've been reborn! No matter how cheesy that sounds. Part of me can't help thinking this is the dream world.'

'What's that?'

There was a blip in Vlad's undiluted look of glee as he winced again from the pain in his side, and as Anna looked at him it was like the energy was slowly draining out of him. 'I'll tell you later.'

A faint shout came out at Anna from the dark, and she shivered. The slayers were coming for them, and they couldn't find Vlad in this state. He'd be unable to fight them off and then it would be too late and he'd be mixed in with the soil at their feet.

'We have to go.'

'One more minute,' Vlad said, his eyes wavering. Anna reached over and took his hand away. This time he didn't stop her, and she lifted his shirt to see the wound better.

Vlad's eyes were closed, so he couldn't see the horrific look that ate up her face. A chunk of his side had been carved out of him, and what remained was a mess; a mixture of oozing blood and singed skin. Vlad seemed to sense her discomfort, and tried to say it wasn't that bad. But it was. Anna had remind herself that he was a vampire and he could heal l himself, but it was upsetting to think that anyone else, any normal person, would be slipping off into nothingness right now as the wound consumed them.

'I can't believe that's just from a bit of UV light.'

'Extra strength UV light, remember. I'm not as much of a wuss as you might think.'

Anna nodded to herself, her mind going back. 'You're the chosen one, yeah. If you were weaker it might of killed you.'

'I think…' Vlad said, '…that if it had hit me straight in the chest it would of killed me. If I had all my powers back properly then maybe not… but thank garlic it only just caught the edge of me.'

'Vlad,' Anna said, looking over her shoulder. 'We have to go… they're going to be searching everywhere.'

'One more minute Anna…' he said, his eyes closing.

'No Vlad! Come on get up, you can lean on me…'

She grabbed his upper arm and started yanking him to his feet. He looked incredibly tired, but helped her to lift him up.

'I can here them coming down this street,' Vlad said, not sound a little worried. 'Oh for flying stakes…'

Anna was shocked to all of a sudden find herself being picked up in Vlad's arms. For a second the street about her was a blur it orange and yellow light in a sea of dark, then before she could blink they were in s completely different street and Vlad had collapsed against a brick wall.

Anna tried not to laugh and cry at the same time. She had just super sped, and it was like all the rides in a theme park piled into one, made even better by the fact that Vlad had been clutching her around her chest and thighs… no Anna didn't need to be thinking about that right now. Panic was filling her up ad she tried to work out where the hell they were now and what she was going to do.

'I really shouldn't of done that,' Vlad said, before keeling over and throwing up against the stone wall. He was shaking all over and the hand clutching his side was smothered with red.

It was then Anna heard a set of footsteps, and tried to look innocent as a middle aged man in a weather worn suit walked towards them. He pulled out a set of keys and a car beeped that was parked up on he curb. The man was at his car door when he turned and looked at them quizzically.

'Er, yes, thanks,' Anna said, as Vlad retched again. 'He's just had a few too many, you know? Been in the pub since six o'clock.'

The man's face filled with understanding. 'Still though, he doesn't look well at all, he's very pale.'

'I don't know why he does this to himself,' Anna shrugged, trying to sound casual, as Vlad slipped down to sit on the pavement, leaning his head back against the wall.

'He's a slayer though?' the man said, looking Vlad up and down. Anna inwardly prayed to the God of garlic that he didn't notice the dark red stain on the vampire's side, but the shadows seemed to work in her and Vlad's favour.

'Does he work at the camp down the road? My son works there, Mark, do you know him?'

'Mark!?' Anna exclaimed, immediately wanting to kick herself for letting the recognition show in her voice. Why did the winner of the most boring slayer in the universe have to have a dad that pitched up now? 'Um, yeah I've chatted to him a bit, I don't work there though…'

'Anna…' Vlad whispered with a grimace. 'Can you help me up…'

Mark's Dad was looking at Anna with surprise. 'Anna? Not the Warden's daughter!? Oh, Mark's told me all about you.'

'He has?'

'I can offer you a lift if you want? So long as he's not sick in my car that it,' he said with a laugh to himself.

Anna was stumped. She did not want to get in a car with Mark's dad of all people, who would most definitely tell his son about it and make Mark wonder who this random and drunk slayer was, who Anna happened to be hanging out with on the night a vampire escaped. But then she looked at Vlad and realised they would be completely helpless if left on a random street in the dead of night.

'I might take you up on that.'

'Hop in then,' the man said walking around the car to the driver's side. Anna took this opportune moment of distraction and quickly slipped off her jacket before tying it around Vlad's waist, in an attempt to hide the dark stain spreading from his side and across his shirt. She opened the door to the back seats and shoved Vlad inside, closing the door quickly once she had jumped in beside him.

Mark's dad set off, and it was only a few twists and turns in the road before Anna worked out where Vlad had actually super sped them to. Her dad's house was over the river, about fifteen minutes away. But oh garlic, what was she going to do? The only place she could think to take Vlad that wouldn't arise suspicion was her own house, but she couldn't do that! She couldn't take the fugitive vampire to the house of the Warden of the vampire camp he'd just escaped from.

At least no one was in. Her dad was still out looking for Vlad, and probably would be for the rest of the night. That was it! She'd take him there, let him get his strength back and then figure out what she was actually going to do with the injured vampire.

Mark's dad chatted amiably to Anna about her dad and how the two had met at a few parties, whilst Anna directed him to her house. Vlad seemed to of stabilised again and was just heavily leaning his head into her shoulder. Anna tried to remember to act worried about him rather than let herself smile at the casual contact between them. It felt like Vlad was some kind of other-worldly thing that she wasn't allowed to touch, and when she did a pleasant zipping would shoot through her stomach.

'I'll tell Mark I saw you!' said their driver cheerfully, interrupting Anna's train of thought as he pulled up by the curb on her street.

'Thank you so much for the lift, sir,' Anna said, painfully aware she didn't even know or remember Mark's surname.

Mark's dad watched them into the house, then pulled out and drove off down the road, his tail lights flashing in the dark. Anna heaved the floppy lump of a vampire through the front door, and with a lot of effort half dragged, half pushed Vlad up the stairs into her room, before shutting the door and locking it with a snap.

I do plan on continuing this fic! Let me know what you think!

Oh, and I've realised that there is a chapter missing! Between 7 and 8… I definitely wrote something in between those chapter's but it has vanished… I must of accidentally not uploaded it or something? And like I said, all the stuff I've already written is miles away and I can't get to it. Hopefully I'll get my hands on it soon and I'll see if I can remix the chapters to fit it in.

Thanks for reading! Laters


	14. Home Sweet Home

After making sure the door was securely locked Anna dumped Vlad on her bed, then ran to the window and quickly shut the blind. The room was thrown into instant darkness, and Anna fumbled for the light switch on the wall and flicked it on. The cold bulb flickered and let out a dim glow, making the room look yellow and fuzzy and not at all comfortable.

Vlad didn't look particularly comfortable either, to tell the truth. He was lying on the bed at an odd angle, still clutching his side.

'Vlad?'

There was no answer.

In the harsh overhead light Anna could see his vampirically pale skin had a greenish tinge. She jumped up and ran downstairs to the kitchen. There she grabbed a large mixing bowl (in case of further sickness), another bowl full of water, kitchen towels, and the first aid kit that they kept under the sink. Once back in her room and making sure again that the door was locked she placed the bowl on the floor by Vlad's head.

'Vlad? I'm going to have to take this off,' Anna said, fumbling with the buttons on his slayer shirt and sliding it out from under him. His torso was covered in blood. Anna set about cleaning him up as he lay apparently unconscious on the bed, but as she cleaned she was surprised to find what lay underneath.

She had of course politely averted her gaze from Vlad when he got changed in the slayer office, but now she couldn't take her eyes off him. His chest, not counting the grotesque one on his side, was dotted with burn marks, some still sore looking, others healed to no more than faint round scars in his flesh.

Healed or not though, they looked like they'd been painful. Then her eye was drawn to his arms. One was slightly bruised, and both were littered with small marks that had obviously been caused by the copious amounts of injections he had received in the camp, but these were nothing when compared to the other marks on his arm. There were a dozen or more thin, straight scars. Deep looking cuts running this way and that up the front of his arm, from his wrist to his shoulder.

Anna was stunned, and didn't move for a moment, taking him in. What had caused this unbelievable amount of injuries?

But of course, she had an idea off where he had obtained them, and a burning hatred flared inside her once again.

She didn't have too long to think about it though, as her attention was brought hack to the wound that was giving Vlad the most trouble. Anna was no doctor, she knew that, but she tried her best at sorting him out. She cleaned the burn and put a very large patch over it, then made him swallow the strongest painkillers she'd been able to find. Vlad would have to let his body do the rest, and already she felt like the huge chunk missing from his side had grown back a little.

Once she'd done all she could Anna yanked off his trousers, without looking, and covered him in her duvet. She flicked off the garish light above and instead let the soft orange of her bedside lamp fill the room.

Sitting down for a moment on the edge of her bed she flipped her phone out of her pocket to check the time. It was half past five in the morning. She knew she really had to get some sleep herself, but she was too on edge. Plus there was a vampire in her bed.

A red dot had popped up on her phone, and clicking it told her she had thirteen missed calls. Most were from her Dad, naturally, although one was surprisingly from Mark. She put that out of her mind as she dialled her Dad's number.

He picked up after little more than a ring, and almost shouted her name frantically down the phone.

'Anna!?'

'Yeah, hi Dad, it's me.'

'Where are you, are you ok?'

'Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine…'

'Thank stakes and sunlight Anna! I thought the vampire might of drained you and flung you in some ditch!'

'Sorry Dad,' Anna said, putting on her best apologetic tone. 'I don't know what I was thinking running after the vampire like that!'

'Utterly thoughtless Anna, you could have been killed…'

'Well I'm not dead Dad! I chased him down the street for a bit but then I realised he was long gone… super sped didn't he… so I just headed home…'

'You're at home right now?'

'Yeah, I have been for a while.'

'Well stay where you are! Don't go out of the house and keep all the doors and windows locked. Don't worry about me, I've got my own key. And keep your pocket stake with you at all times! There's no telling where this bloodsucker could of got to.'

'You're nowhere close to finding him then,' Anna stated matter-of-factly, trying to keep the relief and satisfaction out of her voice. It was kind of laughable really. Her murderous torturer of a father was out scouring the city for a person who was tucked up safe and sound in his very own house.

'He's wounded, so he can't of gone too far,' said her Dad briskly. 'The whole city is on red alert. We've got all the police and slayer army out… it's amazing he's evaded us for this long! Soon we'll have the parasite locked up again.'

'Still though,' said Anna, a smile tugging at her lips. 'The fact that he's got away at all! It's not going to look very good for the slayers guild…' and putting on a thoughtful voice she continued '…and didn't you tell me that this vamp is the chosen one? What a horrific situation.'

'Yes, well…' said her Dad, sounding uncomfortable. 'It's far from ideal, but we have to deal with whatever happens, and we will deal with it Anna, don't you worry! I've got to go now, there's a lot to organise, and I won't be back for a while, at least not until tomorrow.'

'Ok Dad, good luck,' and she cut him off. It was then she felt a pair of eyes on her and looked around to see Vlad awake and looking at her from under his eyelids.

Anna let a moment of silence run between them before she spoke. 'Are you going to be ok?'

Vlad gave her the slightest of nods. 'I'll be fine, after a while. My body just needs time to rebuild itself.'

'That's what I thought,' Anna said. 'Don't worry about my Dad, he won't be back for a while, and he never comes in here anyway. If he does come home you're just going to have to be really, really quiet.'

'Quiet as the grave,' he said with a very weak grin.

Anna rolled her eyes at him. 'Is there anything else you need?'

Vlad looked at her from under his lids again, an unreadable expression on his face. 'I think we both know what I need. But there's none of that here so…'

'Well…' said Anna with a pause. 'There is me,' and she bit her lip awkwardly.

Vlad let out a whisper of a laugh and turned his head into her pillow.

'NOT an option,' he said in a muffled voice.

'I've definitely picked the right vampire,' Anna said, trying to sound light. 'Half dead and the thought of eating me still isn't on the cards.'

Her pillow let out a short chuckle.

'There must be some way,' Anna said, trying to think.

'Most breathers don't tend to have bags of blood lying about the place,' Vlad mumbled.

'My next door neighbour has a cat! I bet I can entice it in here…' said Anna in all seriousness.

Vlad pulled the duvet closer and laughed. 'Just some food for now,' said Vlad.

'What, breath… normal food?'

'Yeah… I dunno some toast or something.'

'Oh, my dad has bacon in the fridge… bacon on toast!'

'Sure…'

'I'll be back in a moment.'

When she came back upstairs twenty minutes later with two plates full of food Vlad was completely out of it, with his face smushed into the pillow. Anna set down the food on her desk, sat down on her chair, and before she knew it her eyes we drooping and she too was wandering down the path towards the dream world… wherever that place was.

**Let me know what you think, I lose interest in things very easily… Hahaha, so always need inspiring. But I do enjoy writing this so expect a few more chapters soon! **


	15. Marked

Anna was woken by a creeping chill. It had inched its way in through the open window and settled in her bones, causing her to shiver herself awake. The brutal wind was shaking at her blind; strangling it mercilessly to the repetitive beat of the rain.

It was a dismal morning, and Anna had just got up off her chair to observe it felornly when she remembered the delicate condition of her guest. She wrenched the blind down as far as it would go, and was contemplating patching up the gaps of grey light with masking tape, but thought it would look a bit too suspicious if her Dad decided to come in.

It was a stupid thought of course, because he'd surely be more concerned with the vampire sleeping in her bed!

Her watch told her it was only quarter past seven. She hadn't even got enough sleep for a normal person, let alone someone who had been hauling a half-conscious vamp around all night, and was pondering the cheeky idea of scooting Vlad over and crawling under the snuggly duvet beside him when she heard a thump.

She turned her head as the rest of her body stiffened. The thump returned, followed by more, another and another in quick succession.

Knocking. Someone was knocking at her door. It wasn't her dad, he had a key. And it wasn't anyone like the postman; the knocking sounded far to urgent for that.

Anna tip-toed out of her room, closed the door quietly so as not to wake Vlad, and patterned lightly down the stairs. The heavy knocking was echoing through the hallway, and Anna felt like an animal cornered in its own den. She could just keep quiet and wait for the person to go away? But then that would look suspicious, if the knocker already knew she was here. She had to play it cool. There was nothing out of the ordinary going on here.

Anna opened the door, and a was a little more than horrified at who she found on the other side of it.

'Mark!?'

She sounded far too guilty, she knew she did, and the look on Mark's face told him he did too. He looked extremely suspicious.

'Anna, I rang you, did you not get my call?'

'Oh! Yes, I did, but I was tired…'

'Is everything OK here?' He said it like the headteacher at a school disco, and Anna really didn't want him to ruin her fun.

'What are you doing here Mark?'

Mark's eyes looked distracted, and he was trying to see around her into the gloom of her hallway. 'Anna, you know what's happened at the camp, don't you? The escaped Vamp?'

'How could I not, Dad was raving about it to me over the phone.'

'He said you were there when it got out. That they wounded it, but then you chased it away…'

'I did, yes. I don't know what I was thinking,' she said with a laugh that reeked of fakery.

'There's something not right here,' he said, and narrowed his eyes at her. In any other situation Anna would of found his utter bluntness laughable. Instead she was clutching the door like a shield. Mark was a head taller than her, and could easily barge past her. She was panicking and exhausted and just wanted to sit for a bit and get her head straight.

But of course that was all perfectly understandable! She'd had one hell of night that Mark was hopefully oblivious of, and any normal person would be annoyed when a man they'd met only a handful of times came knocking on her door at quarter to eight in the morning.

'Mark, you do know what time it is right?' Anna said, channeling her tired irritation.

'Yes.'

'So kindly leave me alone and come back at a reasonable hour.'

'I…' he looked for a moment like he was going to comply, but then his brow furrowed and his foot came up on the step. 'Anna, my dad told me that he saw you last night. That he gave you a lift. You and a practically unconscious boy in a slayer's uniform.'

'I did, but…'

'This vamp that's escaped Anna, it's dangerous. It's the leader of the vampires, the one with unimaginably strong powers. It's not just some wounded boy who needs saving.'

Anna flinched, and Mark saw it. He read it on her face, and he knew. Before she could blink Anna had been pushed aside and the slayer was sprinting through the door, stake poised in his hand ready to strike.

Anna was screaming Mark's name as he tore up the stairs, and running after him as fast as she could. The slayer was strong, but he was clumsy. His large slayer boot tripped on the stairs, and so Anna was almost on him as he threw open her bedroom door.

Vlad had heard Anna's screams and woken up. The duvet had been flung across the floor. He had jumped off the bed and was pressing himself firmly against the wall, almost like he wanted to dissolve right into it. The bandage Amateur-Anna had tried to put on him had fallen off in the bed. From what Anna could see his wound looked a hell of a lot better, but he was still as white as a sheet.

Mark took one threatening step forward, but then Anna was on him. Her fight or flight instinct was kicking in, and she was definitely the former. Mark raised his staking arm just as Anna grabbed it and bit down hard. It was all she could think to do, but it was certainly effective. Mark let out a yell and dropped the stake. As it clattered to the ground Anna pulled at him and kneed him in the place she was sure would hurt the most. Mark hunched over with pain, then with another kick he was on his knees and Anna had the scissors she had used to cut Vlad's bandages pressed hard against his throat.

'You're mad! You've gone mad!' he was yelling through his gasps of pain.

'Keep still Mark!'

'I'm keeping still, believe me!'

'Ok, Mark, listen. You need to hear us out ok…'

'I can't!' He sounded enraged, and his hand shot up to grab at Anna's arm, but she leaned in closer to him from behind and pressed the blade in more firmly, and his arm faltered.

Anna was zipping with adrenalin. She was holding a blade to someone's throat! It was almost laughable.

'Anna…' Mark said with a gulp. 'Please, I won't do anything, just get rid of that blade!'

Anna relaxed her hand a fraction, but the scissors stayed in place.

'What is going on? Why are you attacking me when that is in the room!' Mark said, pointing. The that he was referring to didn't look like he could do any harm even if he wanted to. He was shivering, still in nothing but his boxer shorts, and looked like he should have been six feet under, if, you know, he didn't always look like that. He was very slim compared to Mark, who could of passed for a soldier in a wooly hat and slippers. The scattered scars across Vlad's stomach made him look fragile somehow, not to mention the fact that he was clutching his stomach with a sickening look on his face. His eyes flickered and he sank to the floor, then leant his head on the edge of Anna's bed whilst one of his arms gripped the mattress tightly.

'What's the matter with it?' asked Mark bluntly.

'He's not very well!' Anna said.

'But it's a vampire Anna. Why are you helping it? It's an unimaginable danger, to all of us!'

'Mark,' Anna said softly, trying to stay calm. 'Listen. I know as far as you're concerned Vladimir is a murderous biting lunatic, but even if he wanted to bite us right now, do you seriously think he could?'

Vlad's head was still on the mattress and his eyes were only half open. Mark took Vlad in for a moment before he gave his head the slightest of shakes.

'So will you please just let me explain?'

All three of them were completely still for a moment, then Mark let out a whisper of a yes.

'You won't attack him, or me? Or try to run away?'

The silence seemed to go on for ever. 'I'll hear you out,' was Mark's answer.

Anna was filled to the brim with suspicion, so after jumping back from Mark she grabbed his weapons and threw them out into the hall before locking her door quickly. Then she slipped the key under it so it was outside in the hallway. She had a spare one in her knicker draw, but Mark of course didn't know that.

Mark had shuffled as far back across the room away from Vlad as he could, so he was leaning against said knicker draw. He was looking between them both with an incredibly deep frown on his face.

Anna wasn't sure he would ever see things from their point of view, but whatever happened she couldn't let Mark leave knowing all this; knowing that Anna had helped Vlad escape and that she was keeping him in her room. But she couldn't just get rid of him! And Vlad was in no state to hypnotise anyone. Ah, her head hurt!

Mark was waiting for them to speak, but Anna decided to ignore him for a moment. She walked towards Vlad and offered him a hand. He gripped it tightly and she helped him to his feet, then pushed him onto the end of the bed with his back leaning against the wall. She sat cross legged on the other end and handed him another dose of painkillers and a glass of water.

Mark apparently couldn't take it anymore. 'So it was the 'drunk' guy from last night?'

'Well, obviously Mark.'

'And you let it get in a car with my dad!'

'He wasn't in any danger,' Anna said angrily.

'And what, you're just going to keep it here? What about when your dad gets home?'

'Well, obviously Vlad's just going to be here until he gets better. Then we'll have to think of something else.'

'And what is the matter with it anyway?' Mark asked, looking Vlad up and down.

Vlad had his arms folded around his knees and was resting his head on them. His voice came out slightly muffled as he said, 'I think… I might have UV poisoning.'

'What?!' said both Mark and Anna at the same time.

'It's rare for vampires to get it,' he said, raising his head. 'You know, normally vamps dodge the UV or they're dusted by it, but if we're exposed to too much it can get into out blood and make us sick. And garlic, I feel ill. It's like my head is on fire.'

'I don't think any of the slayers know vamps can be poisoned by UV…' said Mark, almost to himself.

Anna rounded on him. 'Oh, trust me Mark, you will not be telling them.'

'What are you going to do!?' he almost screamed, looking worried. 'You can't just get rid of me so I won't tell anyone. And if it comes anywhere near me I'll… I'll kill it!'

'Well, we need to figure out what we're going to do with you, but just shut up for a moment and listen.' Then Anna turned back to Vlad and said, 'you got UV poisoning from just that one blast?'

'Errr… no,' said Vlad, looking at her with a pained smile. 'When they were, you know, 'torturing' me, they kept shooting me with a UV beam.'

'Is that what all those marks are on your chest?'

Vlad nodded.

'I'm sorry, what? Torturing?' Mark said, but Anna ignored him.

'What about, all those scars, down there…' she said, running her hand down her own arm.

Vlad shot a quick glance at Mark before unfolding his arms and looking down at the scared one. 'They err…' he said, followed by a humourless laugh. 'Well, when we were all caught initially… you know, when they rounded all the vampires up. They thought it would be funny to…' his voice fizzled out. Anna looked across at Mark, who looked like he was trying to understand a foreign language.

Vlad took a deep breath, and said hurriedly, 'basically, I was being examined by four or five slayers, and they pulled my arm across the table and sliced into it over and over.'

His voice still sounded rather faint, which made the statement seem all the more worse. Anna's eyes had gone wide, and now Mark looked like he was trying to understand fish language. Vlad looked at Anna and gave her a crooked grin. 'Don't worry about it. They just look bad because they healed when I'd been injected with vampire inhibitors.'

'But then those scars would look that bad on any normal person?'

Anna was surprised that Mark had spoken directly to the vampire he so obviously wished was dust. Vlad turned his head and gave Mark a very long look.

'Yeah, for any breather that had that done to them,' he said, and folded his arm away again.

Mark shook his head so vigorously it looked like a wasp should have been buzzing around it. 'That does not make any sense.'

'Well, it does Mark, if you know what else has been going on.'

'What else?'

'When Vlad got out he had been running away from slayers… my dad in fact! They wanted to dissect him. I found out the other day, found this dank hospital section of the camp, filled with vampires they had cut up and left to die! In the name of 'research'.'

Mark's face was so screwed up it looked like the back end of her next door neighbour's cat. 'I don't think… whatever you saw… the Slayer's Guild wouldn't sanction anything that was not legal…'

'But that's what makes it so horrible,' Anna said, leaning over the edge of the bed. 'It's illegal to kill or dissect or mutilate living people, but as far as the law goes vampires aren't 'living people'. So all that,' she said, and pointed at Vlad, who's head was on his knees again. 'All those gashes they've inflicted on him… they are all allowed!'

'But the Guild is a fair establishment…'

'Can you really say that after just seeing evidence yourself for what they've done to him?'

Mark was looking apprehensively at Vlad, obviously scared that everything he knew and loved was coming crashing down around him, but then his face was wearing a frown again and narrowing its eyes at Anna.

'But what are you going to do with it? You can't keep it here, it's going to need blood.'

Anna opened her mouth, ready to leap into defence mode when she had a suddenly brilliant idea. Vlad needed blood, and they both needed a way of stopping Mark from ever snitching on them.

'You could get us some?' Anna said with a seductive smile.

Mark didn't look in the least bit charmed, and shook his head. 'No.'

'You must know what we're saying is right,' said Anna.

'I'm not stealing anything from the Guild… or giving you some of my own! That's not what you meant, is it?!'

'Garlic Mark, of course not! I wouldn't ask you to do that. And I must explain that Vlad wouldn't want that either. He doesn't want to hurt any of us.'

Mark had edged his way up the wardrobe and was now standing.

'You can't agree with what the Slayer's Guild are doing Mark?'

'No! I mean, of course it's not right… torture… that can't be right. But they are… they're dead. They're vampires…'

Anna felt like she was standing on the edge of a steep and jagged cliff. One mess up and she'd be tumbling over into the sea, pulling Vlad with her. She just needed the right words now, and they would stay safe at the top.

'We won't hypnotise you, or hurt you, or keep you here. We are going to trust you. Trust you to be a good person and make the right decision.'

'But what are you going to do? Let them all out? After the endless years humans have spent trying to get rid of vamps, trying to remove the threat they pose to us all, you want to set them free?'

'I don't know what we're going to do. We certainly won't be doing any drastic things… yet. We just need to have some time to think about it all… and Mark, maybe you can help us reach that decision.'

Anna got up from the bed, walked over to Mark and gripped his forearm tightly, giving him a hard look. 'But I know I can't take him back there Mark. I can't take him to a place where they'll do that to him again.'

Mark gulped, looking down at her, then shifted from one foot to the other. 'What are you going to do about your dad?'

Anna laughed with relief. She'd done it. He was convinced, she could tell.

'I'm going to pray to the God of Stakes and Crossbows that he doesn't come in here.'

It was risky, what Anna was doing, but it would definitely pay to have an ally on the inside of the camp, and Mark was the sort of person who, once you had him, you'd have until the very end.

'So you're going to let me leave?'

'Of course,' said Anna, stepping back and removing her hand from his arm. He winced as she did it.

'Jesus Anna,' he hissed, inspecting the bite Anna had so kindly given him. 'He's the vampire, not you.'

'Was that a joke Mark!?' said Anna, rather amused.

Mark turned to her, looking confused. 'No.'

Anna grinned and Vlad's soft laugh rippled through the room. Mark's expression turned to annoyance.

'Why are you laughing?!'

Vlad looked up from his arms and smiled a particularly friendly smile. 'Sorry. Thanks Mark, for not saying anything. I owe you one.'

Mark just stared at Vlad. Anna fumbled for the key, trying to flash as little of her underwear as she could. She unlocked it, gathered up all the discarded weaponry and handed it to the extremely confused looking slayer, who obviously hadn't wanted to stay in her room alone with the freakishly friendly vampire.

'Go home and think it all over Mark. Pop by later on, around eight-ish maybe? If you've got any questions we can fill you in.'

Mark looked absolutely flummoxed and didn't say anything. Anna steered him down the stairs and towards the door. Then with a quick wave he was gone and Anna could let a huge smile envelope her face.

Of course, she could of totally misread Mark and it could all horrifically backfire, but it was a risk they had to take.

**Thanks for the reviews, and who knows, there could be blood drinking to come ;)**


	16. Sleepy

Your support means so much to me guys, thank you! Sorry about the wait, always sorry about the wait haha. I just forget about writing it tbh, so it's good when you guys comment and remind me. Here is the next chapter, enjoy :)

Anna ran quickly back upstairs, ready to have a huge discussion with Vlad about the Mark situation, but bless him, he had already fallen back to sleep. He had flopped down where he had been sitting on the duvet, with his arm sticking out at an odd and rather painful looking angle. Anna leant over and pulled on his shoulders a bit until he looked a little more comfortable, then sat down at her desk and ate the cold bacon sandwich she'd made earlier.

You need the energy said her stomach, as it told her hand what to do. She finished shoving the food into her gob, then reached over and grabbed Vlad's sandwich as well. Her stomach went on to tell her that it was fine, because Anna could always make Vlad some fresh food when he woke up.

From the look of him, it would probably be a while before he was up and about, so Anna grabbed the empty plates and took them downstairs to the kitchen, where she began to wash them up. It was the most ordinary thing do to in the world, and yet it couldn't have felt more odd. The gushing from the tap was far too obtrusive, and Anna found herself looking over her shoulder nervously as she tried to clink as little as possible.

Why was she so jumpy? Of course, there was the chance that her dad could walk in at any moment, but Anna had made sure she'd locked her bedroom door on her way out, and washing up was a completely innocent and utterly unvampiric thing to do.

It was probably just the thought of Mark still playing at the back of her mind. Had she been a little overconfident, presuming he wouldn't report what he had discovered? Would a mob of stake-wielding slayers be knocking on the door at any moment?

Well, if that did happen, Anna wouldn't let them dust Vlad without a fight, even if she had to knock down her own dad to prevent it.

Anna shook her head slightly and rubbed the back of her head with a soapy hand. She didn't want to think about her dad, at least not right now. There was too much going around her head as it was. As she rinsed the last dish she realised she didn't like being downstairs at all. Just having Vlad out of her sight made her worry that he would vanish in a poof of dust, so she headed back upstairs.

After giving the key a shiggle in the lock, she opened the door, and at first thought her worst fears had been realised. The bed was completely empty, and it took Anna a good few seconds before she realised that Vlad was now lying on the floor, half hidden amongst the contents of Anna's overflowing laundry basket and under-bed pile of odd socks.

Anna felt worry flash within her, so she bent down and shook him. He flashed awake, and jumped quickly to his feet. He looked between the floor and her bed, then offered her a very sheepish grin.

'What happened? Did you fall off?'

'Errr…' he folded his arms across his chest, just above the hole that Anna hadn't had a chance to re-bandage. '…no. Not that I don't appreciate you giving up your bed but… I've been forced to sleep in a bed for months and months now, and I just can't stand it any more. Especially with this,' he said, and pointed at his burn.

Anna frowned at him, and wanted to ask him what the hell he was talking about, but then she remembered how vampire's traditionally slept. 'Hang on, so you're saying vampires actually like sleeping in coffins?'

'Why would we sleep in them if we didn't?'

'I dunno,' Anna said. 'I thought maybe it was just about keeping up the dark and deathly reputation.'

Vlad grinned again. 'So did I at first, but now when I think of beds…' he said it with an obvious look of distaste. 'They're like being consumed by a squidgy cloud of softness. Sometimes it's hard to know where your body ends and the duvet begins… it's horrible.'

'You just described exactly why I like beds,' Anna said. Her bed was definitely her favourite place in the world. Even more so now Vlad had been sleeping in it…

'Sorry,' Vlad said, looking sheepish again.

Anna laughed. 'Don't worry about it. I don't care where you sleep! But there isn't really anywhere else for you to go…'

Her voice fizzled out as she watched his eyes look sideways to the right. He looked back and caught her eye.

'See, well, the winoh see…' he mumbled.

'Pardon?'

'The window seat…'

Anna frowned. 'But that's right by the window, if the blind opened…'

'Inside the window seat…'

'Inside!?'

'Yeah…'

Vlad kept his eyes trained on Anna, his eyes lingering over her features. He felt a little on edge to say the least. He was still half expecting her to run away from him screaming. Granted, it was all quite a lot to deal with, and a bit odd, but he tried to tell himself that it was nothing to be embarrassed about, and after all, she had known he was a vampire when she broke him out of the high security detainment camp.

A lengthening silence stretched between them, and Vlad became increasingly more worried as he watched Anna's deadpan face. Then all of a sudden she had burst out laughing and before long he was laughing with her, if perhaps more because of relief than amusement.

Anna walked to the window and opened up the seat. It was stuffed with her old school books and spare bed sheets. Vlad hobbled over to stand beside her, and felt the hairs on his bare arm prickle as they brushed with hers.

'You'd seriously rather sleep in here?' Anna said, looking sideways at him. Vlad realised he was almost completely naked, and folded his arms tighter across his chest.

He nodded seriously as she began to pull out the boxes and blankets. 'Definitely. Nice and dark.'

'Do you at least want a duvet or something?'

'Maybe if you've just got a hoodie I can borrow?'

'Yeah,' Anna said, moving over to her wardrobe. 'But the only two that will fit you well enough are a Sponge Bob Square Pants one that used to be my brothers… and this one.'

Vlad snatched the second jumper out of her hand and pulled it on. 'Little Mermaid wins every time,' he said, and Anna laughed as he lowered himself down carefully into the window seat compartment.

Vlad fidgeted as he measured the space. It was a little too cosy width ways, with about a centimetre of space between each of his shoulders, but it was long enough for him to lie flat in, and he thanked garlic Anna was posh enough to live in a house with windows as long as he was.

'Well, I hope you sleep better in there,' Anna said. Vlad smiled at her and shut the lid. Oh, it was such a relief! Pitch black around him and firm floorboards beneath him. He was letting his mind drift off when there was a creak and a slither of light appeared above him.

Vlad could only make out one of Anna's eyes and half her lip.

'You're definitely alright in there?'

'Definitely,' he said with another smile, even though she couldn't see it in the dark.

'Okay,' Anna said, and closed the lid again. A few heart beats later and the crack had reappeared. 'Are you sure?'

Vlad laughed out loud, and pushed the crack open a bit wider so he could see the whole of her face, and allowing her hair to trickle down into the shadow of the seat. 'I'm sure Anna, don't worry. I think after another good few hours sleep my side will be almost better again, and I'm pretty sure I can already feel the UV leaving my system.'

Anna smiled, but it didn't look as convincing as it should of. 'Well, have a good sleep then.'

'Yeah, night,' Vlad said, and let the lid close again. He listened as he heard her close a few draws and put on a pair of socks, then her footsteps wandered out into the hallway.

He was very tired, and so not much crossed his mind as he let his body relax around him. His side was sparking painfully still, but inside he felt warm, and more importantly, safe. Safer than he had done in months, with a smiling Anna that sent tingles up his spine for company rather than a bunch of grey looking vampires.

Vlad felt a rumble in his stomach, and was just starting to think that even some of the watery fake blood from the camp would be appetising right now, when Anna came back into her room and sat on the bed. A minute or so passed, then a thud of footsteps came towards him across the room and the cupboard top was wrenched open.

Anna just stood there for a moment and looked down at him, then she said, 'It all just feels really weird. I know you're in here, but when the lid closes it feels like you've gone!'

'You can come in too, if you like?'

Vlad let the words slip out before he'd even thought about it. An embarrassed panic flashed through him for a moment, but then he gave her an enticing smile. This smile broadened as he watched her face flush with blood, then the lid had closed with a slam and he was listening to her footsteps thudding at lightning speed across the hall and down the stairs.

He turned onto his side, the good side, and let the corners of his lips stretch up in search of his eyes, smiling now he knew that this zippy electric between them was not only being felt by him.


	17. On the News

**Hiyaaaaa…**

**I found the missing section, and have inserted it at the end of chapter 7, as I'm pretty sure it won't let you add in chapters half way through. It just makes the move to Vlad being strapped to the chair a little smoother, so please go back and read it haha.**

**Thank you for your reviews guys, you're all so nice and it means so much to me!**

Even in the dark and shut away in Anna's window seat, there was still so much going on. Vlad had been able to taste the scent of Anna's tea on the air as she made it, then feel the reverberations of each of her steps on the stairs, and the scuffle of her slippers on the carpet. The fact that he could hear her now, however, was nothing to be proud of. Vlad's old and deaf Grandpa Atilla would have been able to hear her snores from the other end of the street. They almost drowned out the chattering in the house next door to them, and the sound of their TV as a news reporter talked about a Vampire Detainment Centre breakout in the area…

Vlad sat up so fast he felt dizzy, and banged his head hard on the wooden lid above him. He pushed it open and closed his eyes, trying to listen.

'… it is no surprise local residents have been shocked by the news; Greg Gandle reports…'

'Do you want parmesan on your taglitelle love?'

It was no good. The report was being drowned out by the neighbour's chattering. Vlad cast a quick glance at a sleeping Anna before he jumped out of the window seat and super sped down the stairs. Upon entering the living room he snatched up the TV remote and began flicking through the channels.

'…add just a _dash_ of powdered chilli…'

'…never before have I seen one in _such…'_

'…the question is, will they choose home, or will they…'

'…'ow dare you! He wah the one what asked for _my _number…'

'…perhaps the more frightening thing is that this escape was initially hushed up.'

Vlad drew a long breath, gripping the remote so tightly he was leaving finger-marks indented into the sides. The reporter was interviewing a local resident.

'Well, yeah!' said a balding mad. 'The Vamp Camp wanted to keep it completely under wraps, but tha' wa' gonna be hard when there wa' a load of shouting and screaming going on in t' early hours of t' morning. I said to Mable, I said 'there's trouble what's 'appened here and that's no mistake'…'

The impatient reporter interrupted quickly. 'The police quickly got involved as well...'

'Oh yes, yes… they were all out, sirens blazing, zooming about…'

'And as a local resident here, do you feel threatened and afraid by this escape?'

'Well, who in their right mind wouldn't?' continued the balding man, scratching his nose. 'And I'll tell yuh now, it makes me wonder what else they've been trying to hush up…'

'I'm sorry that's all we've got time for, Mr Johnson,' said the reporter hastily. 'Certainly, many are wondering how this could have happened, and how the situation will be dealt with.'

'That was Greg Gandle, reporting live,' said a female anchor as the TV switched back to the news studio. 'It is a very worrying prospect Martin, the notion that one of these creatures is out there right now.'

'Yes it is, Helen, and what makes it even worse is that it might not be just any old coffin lodger. There are rumours that the escaped vampire is their clan leader, Vladimir Dracula, allegedly the most powerful vampire there is. We have a spokes-person for the Slayer's Guild joining us now in the studio.'

The male anchor called Martin turned, and the camera panned out to reveal a horribly familiar face sitting on the settee beside him.

'Mr Van Helsing, can you confirm these rumours?'

Vlad's eyes were wider than a bulb of garlic.

Van Helsing.

Jonathan Van Helsing.

This rather grown-up looking Jonno was all dressed up in his slayer gear, as usual, with a stake in his belt and his old-school crossbow slung over his shoulder. Vlad felt frozen to the sofa cushion as a thousand thoughts filled his head at once. He could feel a trickling kind of fear building at the thought of Jonno working to recapture him; as a slayer, he could be pretty formidable. Then there was the odd feeling of novelty Vlad had when you see someone you know on the telly.

Vlad could hear a rather demanding knock coming from somewhere, but it was hard to shake himself out of the thoughts that zipped through him. If Jonno was going to be the one to try and capture him, he certainly knew Vlad a whole lot better than any old Slaying Stan. He would surely be more likely to accurately predict Vlad's movements. And what if he did it? What if he caught Vlad and locked him up again? Despite the animosity that had always existed between them, would Jonno be able to send his former class mate off to be dissected?

As these thoughts manifested themselves, Vlad's ears refocused onto the screen in front of him.

'So the guild is not willing to specify which vampire escaped, and thus how dangerous they could be to members of the public?'

'Nothing can be confirmed at this point…' Jonno began, but Helen was quick to interrupt.

'But it's true that this particular Vampire Detainment Centre housed the most volatile and dangerous vampires in the country, is it not?'

'Yes, I'm afraid that is true,' said Jonno. 'It would be wise for members of the public to travel as little as possible after dark, and to be wary of any solitary characters acting suspiciously. In the meantime the Guild will be posting slayers throughout the city in order to catch the biter.'

He certainly sounded determined to catch him, Vlad thought. The vampire sat back in his seat, feeling a twinge from the burn on his side in the process. Another knocking sound reverberated through the room, this time accompanied by the rattling of glass.

Vlad looked up, and felt horror struck him dumb in his seat. Outside the window stood a rather short and round woman, craning her neck to look into the sitting room, her searching eyes fixed on Vlad.

'I knew there was someone in!' she said, her voice slightly muffled. She reached a podgy hand up and waved a stack of flyers.

'Can I have a word, deary? It won't take a minute,' she said with a raspy wheeze.

Vlad wanted to kick himself. Why had he been so stupid as to run downstairs and sit idly in the living room?

He had to answer it. She had seen him now, and to do anything else would look far too suspicious. Vlad got up, walked out into the hallway and opened the door.

'I'm giving out leaflets,' said the woman without a pause, waving the sheets of paper up and down again. 'You must have heard by now about the atrocious news this morning, about the vampire breakout that happened last night? Quite frankly, it's been a disaster waiting to happen. We at the local parish have always said: they are evil and dangerous and deserve to be exterminated!'

'What are you, a darlek?' Vlad muttered.

The woman narrowed her beady eyes at him. 'This is no laughing matter young man! The majority of them may be locked up, but vampires are and always will be an astronomical threat to everything we hold dear. It says it all on the leaflet.'

She stuck out her hand, shoving a leaflet under Vlad's nose. He skimmed it, picking out the key words: murderers, demons, parasites… it was nothing he hadn't heard before, and yet it still sent an unpleasant shiver down his spine. It was amazing how slowly but surely being called things like that could chip away at him, made even worse by the fact that he knew for the most part that they were right…

'Well take it then!' she said, grabbing his hand and stuffing the leaflet into it. 'Goodness!' she said, dropping his hand in surprise. 'You're freezing! You need to put some clothes on!'

Vlad looked down at himself in surprise. He had been so preoccupied with the fact that he was a vampire answering the door in the middle of the day that his embarrassment at being almost naked had been completely overruled. He fixed a fake smile on his face and thanked the undertakers above that his burn mark was hidden under Anna's hoodie and behind the door.

'Thanks for this,' he said.

'Be sure to show it to everyone in the house!'

'I… will…' said Vlad, but his reply fizzled out. He had just spotted a fully armed and frowny looking Mark walking up the road towards Anna's house. The slayer clocked Vlad at the door, and the little biddy on the door step, and stopped in his tracks. Then he walked slowly forward, his hand holding on tightly to the stake lodged into his belt.

The woman followed Vlad's gaze and turned to see Mark. Her eyebrows were immediately lost in her waterproof bonnet, and she clutched her flyers to her chest. Her gaze then flicked several times between the hunk of young slayer before her and the other almost naked young man waiting at the door. You didn't have to be Frankenstein to work out which conclusion she had come to.

'Well… I'll get going…don't lose that!' she said, pointing a finger at the leaflet before shuffling off to the next house in the street.

Vlad wanted desperately to run and bury himself in the earth and at the same time laugh his head off. Mark just looked confused.

They stared at each other for a long moment, then Vlad stepped back from the door. Mark followed into the shadowed house, and let the door shut with a snap.

**I'm pretty sure half my chapters end with a door shutting haha, but I never no how else to end them! Anyway hope you enjoyed… drop me a review telling me what you think ****J**


	18. Chat

The silence was uncomfortable. So uncomfortable Vlad thought about grabbing Mark's stake and sticking it into his own chest. It was still being held tightly by the troubled looking slayer, who didn't look like he was going to be saying anything anytime soon.

Vlad couldn't take it. 'Weirdly enough, I'm kind of glad you're here now… at least you managed to get rid of that woman.'

Mark didn't move.

'I'd rather be dusted than have to listen to any more of her wheezing,' Vlad continued in a dreadful attempt at small talk.

Mark didn't move for a moment more, then he frowned. 'Really? You'd rather I dust you?' and he looked down at the stake in his hand.

Vlad took a step back and raised his hands in the air. 'Kidding! Kidding!' Vlad would have thought the slayer was joking too, if it hadn't been for his deadpan expression.

'Oh,' Mark said.

Vlad watched him bemusedly.

Mark let go of his stake and crossed his arms over his chest. 'Where's Anna?'

'Upstairs, having a kip,' Vlad said, mirroring Mark's crossed arms, clutching Anna's hoodie closer to him and catching his burn in the process.

'What were you doing talking to that woman?' said Mark, not commenting as he watched Vlad wince in pain.

'She was handing out leaflets,' Vlad said, passing Mark the sheet of paper, who skimmed it before looking up again.

'I thought you might have been trying to…'

'What?'

'EAT her,' Mark said with disgust.

'She saw me through the living room window! What was I supposed to do, super speed back to Anna's room?'

'Well, no, but…'

'Look,' Vlad said, trying to make eye contact with the slayer, something that Mark seemed unwilling to permit. 'I am not going to hurt anyone! The only reason I'm here at all is because I wanted to get away from that garlic-awful camp! Not because I wanted to go on a biddy-blood-drinking spree.'

Mark's eyes shot back down to the leaflet. 'Vampires are manipulative and hypnotic, and will go to any lengths necessary to bend you to their will…' and his expression turned into that of deepest suspicion. 'Is that what you're doing right now?'

Vlad blinked. 'No! Of course not… well, maybe I am… but be fair! If it was the other way around, and vampires had rounded up all the slayers and were dissecting them in prison camps and you managed to escape, you would do anything to make sure you never went back! That's all I'm doing.'

Mark's eyes looked once again at the sheet. 'These parasites may present a kind, understanding, and ordinary exterior, but in their un-beating hearts they are demons in human form that should be automatically exterminated.'

Vlad rolled his eyes. 'Again with the extermination! What is this, an episode of Doctor Who?'

'No… how could this be a TV show?' asked Mark, looking genuinely perplexed.

Vlad shot him a sideways glance and felt a smirk twitch at his lips, but decided not to comment.

'Would you like me to get Anna?' asked Vlad.

Mark nodded.

'ANNNNNNAAAA!' Vlad shouted.

They waited for a few moments, then there was a panicky shout and Anna was running down the stairs.

'What is it… what's the matter… Mark!'

Mark gave her a nod and a small smile as she reached them in the hall. Her ruffled bed-hair was sticking up on one side, and she was wearing a pyjama t-shirt with the phrase 'In My Dreams I'm A Queen' with a picture of a crown pulled tight across her…

Vlad looked away quickly at a picture on the wall, and then down the hall, and then at the carpet… anywhere that wasn't them.

'You're way too early Mark! I told you to come at eight o'clock.'

'I wanted to come during the day, so it couldn't get away.'

'So what couldn't get away?'

'He's talking about me,' Vlad said with a tired voice, then he started. 'Wait! Why don't you want me to get away!? What are you going to do?'

'You haven't told anyone have you Mark?' Anna said, looking fierce. 'MARK?'

'No!' he said quickly, his eyes flicking between the two of them. 'But I should have! This isn't right…'

Vlad was waiting for Anna to shout at the slayer again, but another thought seemed to have crossed her mind. 'Vlad, why are you down here?'

Vlad gave her a brief summary of what had happened, and her eyes went wide. 'But… but someone saw you? Oh, crossbows, this can't be good,' then looking at a nearby window apprehensively she said, 'come on, let's go into the kitchen.'

Anna grabbed Vlad's arm and pulled.

'Ow, ow, ow!' Vlad said, as she pulled him towards the kitchen. 'Watch the burns!'

'Oh, sorry! How bad is your side?'

'Don't worry, it'll be better soon,' Vlad said with a smile.

'I still can't quite believe you managed to get out,' Mark said, wearing his signature frown as he followed Vlad and Anna into the kitchen.

'Well, come on, I mean, slayers aren't exactly famous for their competency,' Vlad said with a grin, which slipped off his face like Renfield's snot when he saw the look on Mark's face.

'What are you going to do now though? Was it really worth all this trouble?' the slayer asked.

'You can't imagine what being out feels like,' Vlad said, leaning back against the food counter.

'Like you've just got out of prison, I'm guessing,' said Mark.

'Like coming back to life, more like.'

'You wish, you dead-un,' Anna said, looking cheeky as she caught Vlad's eye.

'I've been thinking about it for hours now,' said Mark. 'If what you're saying is true, and if they really have been doing… doing those things, then I…' his voice trailed off, and he gripped the flyer he was still holding close to close his chest as though it was a comfort blanket. Then he took a deep breath and said, 'What they've been doing isn't right. It just isn't, but…'

'But?' Anna asked, leaning against the counter beside Vlad so they were both facing the slayer.

'What I want to know Anna is how you're going to keep it here, alive, without it draining us both dry.'

'Will you stop calling Vlad an 'it'!'

'Anna…' Vlad had grasped her arm gently, and then whispered in her ear. 'I am hungry.'

Vlad felt her muscles tensed beneath his hand, and he could feel his own fear and doubt rippling through him. He would of course never hurt anyone, but he was hungry, and not only that, he felt completely empty of energy. He needed energy. He needed blood! And it didn't help that he could constantly hear the soft thudding in her neck…

Vlad yelled as his hand was wrenched away from Anna. Mark had stormed up to the vampire and pushed him up against the fridge, his hand around his neck. He was half a foot taller, and the muscles in his arms tensed as they pinned Vlad's noticeably slimmer arms down. He was annoyed for a moment as he saw Anna looking at them, but really, the fact that he had been half starved on fake blood for a year was hardly his fault. He felt his stomach rumble, and Mark seemed to feel it too. His grip hardened with his fierce expression of utter dislike.

'I know your mind, vampire!,' Mark hissed through his teeth. 'Don't you touch either one of us!'

'I am NOT a danger!' Vlad said, sounding exasperated. 'At least, I'm sure I can manage without...'

'Oh yeah? And how long is that gonna last?'

'Get your stake-loving hands off me!' Vlad said, bring a hand up to grab at Mark's, that was still locked around his throat. A blue spark flashed for a moment, then ripples of electricity shot down Mark's arm and he leapt back with a yelp of pain.

Vlad stumbled backwards and crossed the kitchen to lean his hand on the dinner table. He could tell immediately that a lot of the energy he had managed to regain had just been lost.

Mark took a step forward, but Anna came to stand between the two boys, her fists clenched. 'What the bloody hell was that Mark?! He wasn't going to bite me.'

'Look,' Mark said, a hand inside his jacket where Vlad was almost certain a stash of stakes was hidden. 'I will not tell the slayers where he is, but until I see for myself that what you've both been saying about the Guild is true, I'm not helping you with anything.'

'And if you do realise we're telling the truth?' Anna questioned.

'We'll get to that when we come to it,' Mark said. 'I still feel a certain loyalty to your father and the Guild, Anna, something you were all to quick to abandon.'

Vlad watched as Anna clenched her fists even tighter. 'I have a sense of loyalty to myself Mark! I know what is right and wrong and I can't just sit back and do nothing after seeing what I saw.'

'Well, whatever it is you're going to do now, you can leave me out of it,' Mark said, stepping towards the door as if trying to affirm his statement. 'I'm not going to spy for you, or steal blood or anything like that…'

Anna stepped backwards toward Vlad and crossed her arms resolutely. 'Well if you won't steal blood for us, we're just going to have to make do ourselves then!'

Mark laughed, which was surprising even in itself. 'I don't care if you've got the hots for Dracula here or whatever, but letting him drink from you is a step too far.'

Vlad tensed; it was embarrassing, Mark saying it out loud like that when Anna and he hadn't even voiced their feelings themselves…

'How uncharacteristically shrewd of you, Mark,' Anna said, malice licking at the edges of her mouth. 'But it's not really any of your business.'

'It is my business if you become a vampire.'

'Well that is one thing that definitely isn't going to happen,' Vlad said.

'Don't you touch her, Dracula. I've warned you. She may of betrayed her race siding with you, but she's still a human and therefore still under the protection of the Guild.'

'If you believe one thing of me, believe that I will always do whatever it takes to stop her getting hurt,' Vlad said, holding Mark's gaze for the first time.

Mark dropped his arms to his sides and moved back to stand in the doorway. 'The thing is, when it comes to creatures like you, 'whatever it takes' just isn't quite enough.'

He turned, then looked over his shoulder at Anna. 'I'll be back. You've got my number if there's a problem. Don't do anything stupid.'

Then with a footstep or two down the hallway and a slam of the front door he was gone.

Vlad felt like he had been slapped. Mark's final word to him had hit the nail in the coffin. He was right, Vlad always did whatever he could to stop anything bad from happening, but whatever he touched always seemed to be doomed from the start. He had been forced to modify the memories of his friends in Stokely after they were almost made into fruit salad. Erin had been always at his side, and yet had still ended up being bitten. It was horrible to think that Anna was living on borrowed time now that she was associated with him, but unfortunately, Vlad's track record with breathers provided the perfect evidence for that assumption.

_Thanks for taking the time to review, they are definitely what is keeping this story going. Hope you enjoyed._

_Oh btw I have half an idea of where I'm going with this story but if you have any ideas feel free to suggest them :D_


	19. Daddy's Home

Anna had been waiting for it all evening, and yet she still froze with terror when she heard her dad's car pull up outside the house. She was making tea in the kitchen when the sound of crunching gravel had seeped into the room, followed by her dad's heavy footsteps on the garden path.

It was like any other evening; she had to keep telling herself that. All she had to do was look shocked and scared when he talked about the escaped vampire that was currently upstairs, asleep in his daughter's room.

'I'm home,' called her dad from the hall, and Anna called back a hello. The Warden came into the kitchen, dragging his feet dismally and looking far past the point of being tired.

'Jesus, dad,' Anna said. 'Did you get to sleep at all last night?'

'Not a wink,' he said gruffly, sliding off his jacket. 'Been running on coffee and biscuits all day. It's been a nightmare. Is that one for me, love?' he asked, as he stood up and grabbed Vlad's mug of tea. Anna thanked all that was wooden and pointy that she had her back facing away from her dad at that point, because her eyes were as wide as saucers.

'Well, yeah, Dad. I heard you pull up in the drive.'

'Cheers, love,' he said as he grabbed it and sat back down. 'It's been a stress, I'm telling you,' and he took a long gulp of tea, followed by a rumbling cough and a sigh.

'Have you been out all day trying to hunt it down then?' Anna said, channeling her inner Mark.

'Yeah, that and calling up every other Vamp Camp in the country. You never know, with one of them on the outside there could be any number of attempted rescues, revolts even! Though hopefully the other vamps won't catch wind of the situation.'

'Will you catch it, d'you think?'

'Oh yes, yes, don't worry. The vamp is alone, wounded, and can only travel at night. Soon it will be locked up safe and sound and business will continue as usual.'

Anna felt a jolt shoot through her. It bubbled up from the bottom of her spine to the top and made her forehead furrow into a deep frown. 'Business as usual'. She knew exactly what that meant, and her dad was clearly perfectly at ease with letting it continue. Her minds eye shot back to the version of her dad she had seen and heard in those corridors and lab rooms. It was sick. The man sitting in front of her was sick.

'I told you Anna, don't worry!' the Warden said gruffly, obviously interpreting her anger as her being fearful of the situation.

'I'm not,' Anna said, not meeting his eyes.

He stood up and came over, then wrapped his meaty arms around her in a tight hug. She didn't know whether to feel shocked that her dad was actually expressing some affection, or horrified that a torturer and murderer was trying to make her feel better.

'We'll catch that bloodsucking parasite, Anna. You can be sure of that.'

Anna slid her arms around his middle and gave him a squeeze back. 'I'm not worried Dad. I know that in the end, everyone will get exactly what they deserve.'

_Verrrry short I know, but I just thought I'd put up this little bit on it's own, tell you guys thank you for the lovely encouraging reviews as always, and assure you that there will be more to come :)_


	20. Munch Munch

'RENFIELD!'

The bellowing voice of the Count echoed through the halls of Garside. A large bang sounded and thunder rumbled in the sky. Vlad was sat in the middle of a physics class, and every student there had turned to look at him with a sniggering sneer on their face. Vlad inwardly cursed his moody old bat of a father and tried to look un-phased.

Footsteps stomped across the ceiling, causing dust to fall down from the corner and a large spider to drop from its web into the teacher's briefcase.

This all felt very odd to Vlad. His embarrassment of a dad felt like the most normal thing in the world - more normal than blinking - but something about it didn't feel right, as if none of that happened anymore. He just couldn't remember why.

The teacher paused briefly, looking up at the ceiling with a disapproving air as a few more 'you idiots' and 'infectious toads' echoed down from the room above.

'Settle down class. You need to focus. After the results of last week's mock test you should be paying more attention...'

Vlad could feel himself tuning out, and didn't notice the sound of the school bell until he saw the other students standing up around him. As the rest of the class filed out into the sunshine for break Vlad ran up the deserted staircase that led to the Dracula quarters. Upon opening the door he threw his bag down dramatically on the table and balanced his best indignant look across his face. 'Well, thanks! Now the whole of my physics class thinks I have a family of freaks...'

The Count paused in hitting Renfield with The Vampire Times and turned to look at his son, an eyebrow raised.

'...which of course, is absolutely true!' continued Vlad, folding his arms.

'This IMBECILE,' said his dad, pointing a long finger at Renfield, 'Thought it would be funny to varnish my coffin with gravy!'

'But it smelt so nice in the stew, I thought you'd like it,' Renfield said with a whimper.

Vlad rolled my eyes and slumped down on a seat at the table. 'Well, next time try and keep the screaming to a minimum.'

'Oh, Vladdy! I was thinking... what would you say to a late nights hunting tonight!? Just you and me! Father and son! The Prince of Darkness and his trusty sidekick!..'

'What? Hunting? Are you out of your mind? Have you not seen the news?' Vlad said and pointed at the rolled up paper his dad was holding. 'The country is crawling with slayers, just waiting for a couple of vampires to cross their paths on a late night snacking spree. That is not going to be us.'

'But Vladdy, just one night!'

'There are rumours now that even some of the normal breathers are starting to twig that we exist. We have to be careful.'

'I've almost forgotten what blood tastes like...' said the Count, clutching his stomach dramatically.

'You go through three bottles a day Dad.'

'I need fresh blood! I keep thinking at least I've got Renfield's, in case I grow desperate, but…'

The sad excuse for a Butler shuffled forward, batting his eyelashes seductively. 'I've got more uses than just as a blood bag, master.'

The Count threw him a hateful look and pushed him away.

'I'll leave you two alone,' Vlad said as he turned to leave.

'What, no! Ew!' said the Count, throwing Renfield a look of deepest loathing.

'I meant you and Miss Macaulay, she's coming up the stairs.'

'Oh... right,' said the Count, turning around and looking flustered.

Vlad walked out of their private quarters and walked down the stairs towards the main lobby.

'Ah, Vlad!' Miss Macaulay said as she came up the stairs towards him. 'Is your father upstairs? I need to talk to him urgently.'

'Yeah, Miss. He's in the dining room,' Vlad said, smiling at her. Despite all the family drama, he really was in a very good mood, as he strolled along the empty was so normal. Not normal by a breather's standards, of course, but so blissfully and familiarly normal for Vlad that he didn't want to wake up.

'Wake up?' he asked himself out loud, stopping dead in his tracks.

And that was when he realised. This was his old life, the one that was dead and gone. He was in the dream world.

It was strange, the dream world normally only showed the impossible, but then in retrospect, that was exactly what this situation was now. Vlad felt so unbelievably depressed just thinking that, and was about to try and wake himself up, when he noticed a movement down the corridor. He took a few furtive steps down it and found his sister sticking up a poster on the wall.

'Ingrid, what are you doing?'

'Oh, Vlad! My favourite bloodsucker.' She turned away from the wall as he approached her, smiling sweetly.

'What are you looking so happy about?'

Vlad didn't like it, it wasn't natural for Ingrid to look this happy.

'I'm happier than I ever have been,' she said, rocking backwards and forwards on the spot.

'Why…?' Vlad asked, his voice failing him as she started to inch closer to him. Then all of a sudden she had him pressed up against the wall and a sharpened stake at his throat.

'Because I've got you cornered, of course. Now I can finally do it. Finally rid the world of the leader of you vampire scum and send us into a bright and brilliant future.'

Vlad was so taken aback he forgot to be scared. 'I'm sorry, what?'

'You are a plague to this world, Vladimir Dracula, and I will be the one to purge you from this Earth. Vampire scum!'

Vlad didn't understand. Why was his sister saying all this? Of course, her words made perfect sense… he was a plague to the world. And to hear those words coming from his own sister made him feel like he was collapsing internally. But that was the strange thing; why was Ingrid talking about vampires like she wasn't one of them? It was even more odd, because the look on her face told Vlad that she meant every word, and now she was lifting the stake high in the air, her leather clothes creaking as she did so. She bit her teeth together in a malicious snarl and was about to stick the stake into Vlad's throat before he realised.

'This has all happened before!'

Ingrid stopped, hand in the air, and frowned at him. 'What are you talking about?'

'In the real world. All of this has happened before, back when Garside was still a school. The physics lesson, Renfield and the gravy coffin. This isn't just the dream world, it's a memory. Except when this happened last time you were making fun of me for being a wimpy vampire, not threatening me because I was one.'

Vlad's eyes then flickered to the poster behind Ingrid's head. It was a propaganda poster for the Slayer's Guild. A fist raised high in the air, wielding a deadly looking stake across a pair of blood red fangs.

'Ingrid, what's going on?'

'Nothing you need concern yourself with, little brother. Munch munch.'

'What?'

'Time. To. Eat,' she said with a hiss of her fangs, and made a lung for his neck. Then the corridor around Vlad was melting around him and there was a familiar voice in his ears.

'Wake up Vlad, we need to…'

Anna had been gently shaking Vlad's shoulders when he all of a sudden sat bolt upright and let out a loud yell. Then he was scrambling as quickly as he could out of the window seat and falling onto the floor.

'Vlad, be quiet!' Anna hissed. He looked so manic he might try jumping out of the window for all Anna knew, so she did the only thing she could think of and jumped on him, managing to pin him down before clapping a hand over his mouth.

'Anna?' he mumbled through her fingers, his eyes searching her face in confusion.

'Shhhh!' she said, then craned her neck towards her one door. 'Dad! The woodlice are back! I found one in my shoe!'

'Oh, don't be such a baby Anna,' said a gruff voice from below.

Vlad stared at Anna in disbelief. 'Your dad's back?!'

She nodded.

'I have to go…'

He made to get up off the floor, but Anna pushed him back down by the shoulder.

'You are not going anywhere right now!' she whispered through her teeth. 'And what's wrong with you, anyway, bad dream?'

Anna watched as a shiver shot through him. He then slumped onto the floor as if he'd just flown to Transylvania and back. Anna paused, then rolled to the side and sat down beside him.

'Was it a really bad dream?'

'It was just weird.' Vlad ran both hands through his hair as he lay there. 'What are we going to do now Anna? I can't stay hidden in your window seat forever.'

'He won't find you in it, if that's what you're worried about. He makes a point of never coming in here. Three years ago he came in and I had left a tampon in the middle of the floor. He couldn't look at me for a week after, he was so embarrassed…' Anna's voice trickled out as she remembered her bumbling fool of a father. It made her sad to think that him and the man downstairs were the same person.

'Doesn't bother me,' Vlad said, with a small smile. 'I think I've been sleeping on a few of them.'

There was a thud from the hallway, then the repetitive stomping of Anna's dad coming up the stairs. Vlad's eyes went wide and he scrambled to his feet, dashing to the nook between the back of Anna's door and her wardrobe. Anna hadn't even bothered to move. Her dad reached the top of the stairs, then turned left, away from her bedroom, and trudged into his own.

'He didn't sleep at all last night,' Anna said from the floor. 'He probably won't come out of his room again until morning.'

Vlad was standing rigidly still up against the wall, but his eyes swivelled to meet Anna's.

'I'm not sure if I can take this.'

'Huh?'

'I can't do this. What's the point, Anna? I'm always going to be this disgusting thing that has to hide in shadows because just my existence scares people so much.'

Anna just stayed sat on the floor where she was, staring at him. She didn't know what to say.

'For the rest of my life now I'm going to be on the run, having to live with the fact that I will always be this thing,' and he punched himself half-heartedly at his chest, 'That I can never live a normal life. Never have friends or a family…'

'No, Vlad. You've got me, at least. And you're not just escaping, you're fighting back! We're going to show those slayers and the country how wrong all this is…'

'But I'm always going to be this thing. I can never escape what I am, Anna. And before it was ok, it wasn't too bad, because I could drink soy blood and pretend to be a breather student, or run off travelling and never see the same person twice. But now… now everyone knows about vampires I don't have either of those options, and no matter how much I try to ignore it I am horrifically hungry.'

Anna flinched, and she knew straight away that Vlad had seen it.

She shouldn't have been that surprised. It had obviously been ages since he'd last had a meal.

'Well, there's at least one thing we can fix,' she said, and stood up, brushing the carpet fluff off her knees.

If Vlad could have backed even further away from her he would have. He looked like he was seriously considering turning himself into a ghost and melting his way through the wall.

'Vlad. I know what you'll say straight away, but I don't mind if you want to have a drop of my blood... to keep you going…'

'You cannot make me that offer.'

'Well, I am Vlad, and let's be honest, what other option do we have?'

'I don't need it.'

Anna rolled her eyes. 'Don't make me laugh, Vlad. You look like a corpse. Come on, just look at yourself.'

Anna grabbed him and pulled him into the middle of the room. If he could just see himself and how bad he looked, Anna thought, see those dark circles under his eyes and the grey colour of his skin, he would know how much he needed the blood.

Obviously Anna didn't have her head screwed on correctly. For the first few seconds after she had opened her wardrobe door and swung Vlad in front of her full length mirror the look her reflection was wearing was full of confusion. Then with a crashing realisation she remembered a little fact about vampires that made checking your appearance a little difficult.

She'd never experienced it in real life, but Vlad was standing right next to her, Anna's hand still latched onto his wrist, and yet in the mirror she looked completely alone. Vlad was staring as though he couldn't see the mirror at all; looking right threw it to garlic-knows where.

Anna shoved the wardrobe door shut and grabbed Vlad's other arm.

'Vlad?'

He just kept staring.

'Vlad! For garlic's sake!' She yanked on his arm until he turned to face her, his expression totally impassive.

'I know what you're thinking,' she continued, seeing the shape of her own face reflected in his dark pupils. 'You have to stop with this self-loathing. You are a vampire. You cannot change that. They may hate you and want to shut you away in a camp, but you shouldn't let that make you hate yourself.'

'I can't… Anna…'

'Can't what?' She knew her voice was starting to sound annoyingly stern now, but she didn't care. 'Can't drink my blood? Vlad, if you don't, I think you might die. If not now, then eventually. And trust me, I am the only person on the planet right now who is giving you permission to drink my blood, so you might as well take the opportunity.'

'Anna, it's not even that I don't want to drink your blood. I've never drank human blood before at all! I'm afraid it might… change me.'

'You've never drunk it… ever?'

'Never.'

'Well, I can see how you might… Look, either way it's a choice you've got to make. Either wither away until you look like a leaf skeleton floating on the breeze, or have a sip and get better.'

'I can't…'

'Vlad!'

'No, listen, if I bite you then you'll turn into a vampire too.'

'Oh... right…' She had completely forgotten about that little rule, but she wasn't going to let him get away that easily. She ran over to one of her draws and pulled out her old Swiss Army knife that her dad had given her when she turned sixteen. Then she pulled him over to the bed and they sat down beside each other.

Vlad looked extremely uncomfortable, but he was watching her with a rather interesting look in his eyes. She reached up to the side of her neck and laid the blade across it.

'I'll cut, and you can just suck the blood out, right?'

Vlad nodded. He definitely wasn't complaining anymore. He still looked scared, but clearly reason and need had overtaken his honourable intentions.

'As long as my fangs don't pierce your skin, you'll be fine,' he said, and he licked his lips slowly.

Anna smiled slightly, then turned her head to the side and pressed the edge into her skin. For a moment she couldn't feel anything at all, then a sharp stinging pierced through her. She quickly drew the blade away, and her nose was hit at once with an iron like tang, but she couldn't see any of the blood at all, because Vlad had pulled her into his lap and was pushing back her hair. She caught a fleeting glimpse of blackened eyes and pearly white teeth, before he bent his face into the nape of her neck and pressed his mouth eagerly against her skin.


	21. Blood Hug

**I was just reading through the last chapter I uploaded and there are soooo many typos. Soz about that, it's cause I only read through chapters once before uploading them haha.**

**'Made a lung for his neck'... Jesus, I must have been really tired or something. Anyway, here's the next one… Enjoy! **

**…oh, and as always, thank you for the lovely reviews. I always appreciate you guys taking the time to write them.**

It was like a deep red wave was coursing through Vlad's veins and washing over his mind. The warm and wet at Anna's neck tasted like nothing he had ever experienced. He hadn't even noticed how empty he had been feeling for the last few months… or even years. Soy blood was guiltless and was adequate enough in taste, but it was nothing compared to the real thing, and somehow the fact that it was so wrong made it feel all the more brilliant as it slipped down Vlad's throat.

His wounds were already closing up, and he could feel his natural power being regenerated and flooding through his limbs, as he sat, surrounded by Anna and her blood and the smell of her skin and hair. They were both sat on the duvet, Anna with her legs wrapped around his waist and Vlad with her hands pressed against the small of her back. In any other situation Vlad would have felt pleasantly embarrassed at their close proximity, but it just made the sensation all the more brilliant. He could feel everything so much better than he ever had before. Anna's arms had crept around his back to hold him closer, but she wasn't just encircling him, she was flooding through him, her engery becoming his, and he didn't want it to end.

But it had to. She would be weaker after he'd drunk from her of course, and the quicker she healed the quicker they would be able to do this again…

Vlad shook himself slightly and pulled away. Up until that moment Anna had remained perfectly still, but now her eyes flicked to his and her hand reached up to her neck.

'Wait…' Vlad muttered, and her eyes widened slightly as he leant in towards her again. He pressed his mouth to the incision on her neck again, but this time did nothing more than plant a soft kiss on her skin, simultaneously running his tongue lightly over the cut. Then he pulled away and pressed his face into the other side of her neck, holding her in a tight hug. He felt her legs squeeze him slightly as her breath quivered in her throat.

'That should stop the bleeding,' Vlad said. Vlad had never had to use his salivar to stem a breather's blood flow before, but he could see now how it was useful. Of course, it was supposed to be used to stop half fangs bleeding to death before their bodies could make the change into a vampire, but…

'Thank you, Anna,' Vlad said, and he felt her jaw rise upwards into smile. Vlad pulled away lightly and fell backwards onto the bed, his face still wet with her blood, and felt himself grinning stupidly.

Anna reached her hand upwards again to feel the cut. 'That was a very weird sensation,' she said, half to herself.

'You're telling me,' Vlad said, as he felt himself relaxing fully into the duvet for the first time in a long time.

'Are you feeling better?' she asked, getting up and moving to the waredrobe to look at her neck.

'Much,' Vlad said, then felt his smile slacken a little. 'You're alright, aren't you?'

'Oh fine,' Anna said, not even bothering to turn to look at him. He could tell she didn't want to make a big deal out of it, whether it was for his sake or her own. 'Just a little lightheaded I think.'

'You should definitely go and eat something,' Vlad said, turning onto his side as he watched her fumble in the cupboard.

'Don't get blood on my bed,' Anna said, as she chucked a pack of make-up wipes at him. He sat up and got to work cleaning his face.

Anna fumbled around a bit more and pulled out some clothes before dumping them onto the bed. 'I think it's about time you got dressed,' she said.

Vlad picked up the clothes gingerly. 'These aren't your dad's clothes, are they?'

'Well they aren't mine Vlad,' she said with a smirk at him. 'My Dad's trousers would go around you twice. They're my brothers old ones.'

'Oh,' he said, and put them on.

'How are your… burns and stuff?' Anna asked as she watched him get dressed.

'Much better thanks,' said Vlad lightly, looking down at his stomach as he turned a t-shirt the right way out. The wounds were now almost completely healed, but the old scars he wore didn't seem to have altered much. 'Although I think I will forever more be a walking advertisement for the effectiveness of UV ray guns.'

Vlad finished getting dressed, then he and Anna sat down on the bed together. It was odd. For five mintues they had been entwined with eachother, and now they were sitting on the edge of the bed like two people who had never even met each other before. Vlad wasn't sure if it was awkward or funny, but either way it was stupid. They were definitely something more than friends now, and he felt his mouth curve into a grin as the words 'suck buddies' skipped across his mind.

Anna was grinning now as well, looking sideways at him. Vlad shook off his last inch of nervessnous and reached his arms out towards her. She shuffled across and leant into his arms, and within a second they had fallen backwards together onto the bed, Anna's head resting on Vlad's chest and his arm fitting into the curve of her waist.

They lay there quietly for a few moments before Anna broke the silence.

'I did wake you up for reason, you know. Mark sent me a message. Apparently he's changed his mind about something, and wants to meet me in a café in town.'

Vlad wasn't sure what to think about that, and said simply, 'Let's hope it's good news.'


	22. Gustaff's Cafe

Gustaff's Late Night Cafe. From what Anna could tell it was a bit low rent, but it would have to do. Anna pushed open the door and shuffled out of the pouring rain and into the stagnant smell of old bacon and coffee. A wrinkled old man looked up from his burger, stared at her for a few moments, then looked away. Anna walked up to the counter and looked up at the overhead menu.

'We're outa' milk, and bread... and chips... and cake,' said a rather greasy looking woman from behind the till, as she looked Anna up and down.

'Oh, ok. Black coffee then, please.'

'We're outa' coffee and all. No coffee, tea or hot chocolate.'

'What _do_ you have?' Anna said.

The waitress raised an eyebrow and shot a glance towards an almost bare counter, supporting nothing but a bottle of squash, some salt, and a half eaten packet of crisps.

'That's it?' Anna asked, rather irately.

The woman shrugged a shoulder.

'That guy over there's got a burger...' Anna said, gesturing to the old man, who was using his fork to itch his armpit.

'He took the last one.'

Anna raised her eyebrows, but decided she was too tired to argue. Two minutes later she was siting at a table up against the wall, pulling her hot orange squash closer to her chest. She shivered violently and shrugged off her damp Parker coat, then rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes.

She felt utterly on edge; leaving Vlad behind in the same house as the Warden felt like a dust wish. Now she was meeting a certain slayer to discuss garlic-knew what, and really all she wanted to do was have a kip.

Anna was half way to having one when the door swung open and the boy she had been waiting for came hurrying in out of the rain. His brown hair was plastered against his forehead and his jeans were splattered with water and mud, but his strong physique still caught the immediate attention of the waitress, who straightened herself up and flicked back her hair dramatically. She smacked an extremely cheesy smile onto her face as he approached the counter.

'Good evening,' she said, flashing a set of slightly stained teeth. 'What can I get you this evening, darlin'?'

'Er...' Mark said, shifting away from her slightly to stand at the opposite end of the counter. 'Have you got any tea?'

'Of course,' she said, absentmindedly wiping away some grease from her forehead. 'With milk? And we have biscuits if you'd like, or toast? I could make you some beans on toast, if you fancy?'

Clearly only certain customers merited actual service, thought Anna, rather than having nothing but a cup of hot squash shoved under their nose.

'No, just tea please. Black.'

The woman made him the tea and he turned around. Anna waved a hand at him, but he continued to gaze around the room, looking slightly lost. Anna shook her head in annoyance, before shouting in an annoyed whisper, 'Mark! Over here!'

The slayer finally spotted her and walked over, leaving a glaring waitress stood behind the counter.

'That waitress thinks us two are an item, it seems,' said Anna with a small laugh.

'Well, she's completely missed the mark there,' said Mark, not even cracking a smile. 'You're definitely not my type.'

Anna shot him a bitter look. 'Yeah, well you aren't really mine either.'

'Oh, I know that much,' said Mark, taking a casual sip from his tea but giving Anna a dark look. 'From what I've seen you only seem to go for inferior and parasitic species.'

'If you're talking about Vlad, we are _not_…'

'Don't say that name here!' hissed Mark, looking shifty.

'Mark, you're dressed as a slayer. No one would suspect anything dodgy coming from you.'

'Where is your biter friend anyway?' Mark said, ignoring her.

'I left him back at the house. I couldn't very well bring him here, could I?'

'No, it's too busy and well lit,' Mark said, nodding in agreement. Anna took a look at the only other customer in the café, the old man, who was now asleep with his arm half lying in a pile of ketchup. Then she glanced at the flickering yellow light hanging from the ceiling, and made a note to herself to never entirely trust Mark's judgement.

'So? What have you changed your mind about? You're not going to grass on us, are you?'

'No. No… No.'

With that one repeated word half a dozen expressions crossed over Mark's features; it was like watching a facial firework display.

'Well…' said Anna, trying not to laugh. 'That's good.'

'Yeah, I mean no. It's not good that I'm going against everything I've ever been taught as a slayer, but some of what you said made sense.'

The frown on Mark's face was so deep it almost looked painful. The two of them sat in silence for a moment as Anna let him order his thoughts.

'I have been thinking…' continued Mark.

'That's great Mark, keep up the good work,' said Anna with a sly grin. Mark ignored her again, and Anna thought wistfully that Vlad would have laughed at that if he had been there.

'…you need something to feed that leech with, and if he doesn't get any blood he'll starting hurting people.'

Anna had abandoned her amusement, replacing it with utter surprise. 'You haven't...?'

'I've taken the necessary measures to make sure that no one, particularly _you_,' Mark said, glaring at Anna, 'gets hurt.'

'I can't believe it, you've stolen blood for us?'

'I didn't _steal_ anything. I'll do some extra shifts to pay for it or something.'

'Thank you so much, Mark! It's so important that he eats enough.'

Mark was frowning so much Anna was surprised his face hadn't yet imploded. 'Yeah, I bet it is important. You'll want your vampire buddie to be all shiny and new, I'm sure. But listen, it damn near cost me my job. A colleague nearly caught me as I was smuggling it out. I went through the scanners and the slayer working there picked up that I had a large amount of inactive blood around my midriff. Thankfully I managed to convince him I'd just had a large rare steak for lunch.'

Anna stared at him for a moment, then sat back in her chair and laughed, earning a nasty glance from the waitress and resulting in Anna knocking the remainder of her squash over the table as she tried to compose herself.

'It's not funny, Anna, and there's no way I'm doing it again.'

'Well, how many bags did you get?' Anna asked, shaking squash out of her sleeve.

'Four,' Mark said, pulling out a squishy-looking carrier bag from the inside of his jacket and pushing it across to her.

'Well, that might last a week if he goes easy with it.'

'I doubt he'll manage _that_, the bloodthirsty…'

'And what about the documents?' Anna asked, skirting past his nasty comment.

'Um, well… It's been difficult even getting into the record rooms,' Mark said, not meeting her eyes. 'I'm only posted on guard there once a week, and there are so many sections, I wouldn't even know where to look…'

'So you haven't looked at all?' Said Anna rather loudly, causing the sleeping old man to jerk awake and send his plate smashing onto the floor.

'Well, I…'

'Look, Mark, you want to see the evidence as much as I do, right? There must be some files somewhere about all the evil stuff they're doing. I don't think it will be in an obvious place though, and it will probably be marked as highly confidential.'

'OK, I'll make sure I look tomorrow Anna, I promise. I'll even have a look around your dad's office if I get the chance.'

'Good. Send me a message letting me know what you find.'

Anna gave him a smile and took a sip from her mug before she remembered it was empty, then looked at the white clock on the wall above the counter. 'It's getting late. I'd better get going.'

'Listen Anna, one more thing,' Mark said, grabbing her by the arm as she got up and walked around the table. 'I'd be extra careful from now on, because the guild have published a picture of Vlad. His face will be up on posters all around town by tomorrow.'

Anna was completely taken aback by this information. 'But why would the guild do that? If people recognise that he's the chosen one they'll go mental…'

'I think they're getting a bit panicky. This is the first time this has happened and he still hasn't been caught. Be careful.'

Anna pulled her Parker on quickly and shoved the plastic bag into one of her deep coat pockets. 'I will be.'

**Thank you for the reviews, I love knowing what you guys think. And yes, I am planning some Vlad-slayer confrontation in the near futute :D**


	23. Wanted

**Hello! I know I'm sorreeeee it's been ages since I updated! Incase you can't remember what's happened so far... Anna and Vlad are hiding from the slayers at her dad's house as Vlad recovers from being starved and shot. Last chapter they had finally convinced Mark to be on their side, and he gave Anna some blood to give to Vlad. Yummy yummy.**

Anna ripped the poster off the lamppost and scrunched it into a ball, before aiming it at the next door neighbours cat that was watching her stonily. Mark had only just told her about the slayers publishing a photo of Vlad, and then she had gone out this morning to get fresh milk for breakfast and seen Vlad's face staring at her from the corner of every street.

It was ten o'clock, and her dad had already left for the guild. Vlad was at home alone, no doubt relaxing for a bit after the slightly tense previous night that the two of them had spent listening to Anna's dad creaking around in the room next door.

Vlad wouldn't ever be able to relax again, once Anna had told him about this. The poster had a few photographs of Vlad. There was a full length photo next to a height chart, in which he was wearing the plain clothes of the camp and a card in front of his chest saying VAMP 0001. Then there was a picture of just Vlad's face. He still looked very much like the Vlad Anna knew, except some sneaky slayer had photoshopped a pair of white fangs onto his closed mouth and made his eyes a brilliant red. Anna would have found it funny if she hadn't been so full of anger.

Because this changed things. A lot. Vlad would no longer be able to go out where there were people, or have any chance at a moderately normal life. Now not only the slayers, but the whole of England were out for his blood.

And there was no denying the fact that if Vlad was imprisoned by the guild again he would be murdered, or tortured and murdered, and Anna would never see him again. Just the thought of that made her feel unbleiveably scared and indescribably angry. It was like nothing she'd ever felt before. The idea of the slayers doing any of that sickening stuff to Vlad made Anna feel like red hot lava was running through her veins.

She was just walking up her garden path, trying not to burst into flame, when she looked up and almost dropped the bag of food she was carrying in surprise. There was an aging woman standing amongst the shrubary peering in through Anna's living room window. And this was not just a normal raise of the chin, as though the woman was casually looking for something. This woman had her nose pressed flat against the glass, and was even standing on a pot plant to try and get a bit of height.

'Excuse me?' Anna said, rather irately.

The aged woman turned, tottered off the flower pot and walked up to Anna, her eyes squinting suspiciously. She didn't say anything at all, and it took a while before Anna realised who the woman was. The old bat was part of the local church, and although Anna and the woman had never actually met, Anna had seen her milling about the centre of town, always with a stack of flyers in her hand about praising God, or damning inappropriate advertising, or protesting about a rise in car park charges.

'Who are you, may I ask?' Anna said, trying to be as well mannered as possible.

'Mrs Riggling,' she said, with her unwavering squinty stare.

'Can I help you with anything, Mrs Riggling?'

Mrs Riggling stuck out a plump hand, in which she unsurprisingly held a flyer. This time, rather than there being a picture of Christ or a mean looking traffic warden on the front, there was instead a picture of Vlad's face. Anna mentally prepared herself for the lecture about evil and 'monsters in human form', but instead Mrs Riggling said, 'you live in this house, do you?'

'Yes…' Anna said quizzically.

'Never seen you here before.'

'I don't usually live with my dad, you see I…'

'So it's just you and your Dad then, I suppose?'

'Yes. Yes, just me and him,' Anna said, now feeling rather on edge.

The woman shot a look towards one of the upstairs windows, then looked back towards Anna.

'Well, make sure your father sees that flyer.'

'On, yeah, of course I will…' Anna said, but the little old woman was already bustling away down the garden path.

Vlad held the poster in his hand for what felt like an eternity before he actually realised what he was looking at. It was a wanted poster for a young man. His dark hair stood out massively against the white walls and clothes, the latter of which looked like the uniform the vampires had worn at the camp. They were hanging dismally off the boy's body, who was so deadly pale and half emaciated he almost didn't look human.

But this person wasn't human. Vlad wasn't human.

'Is this a photo of me?' Vlad said, not letting his eyes leave the poster. He knew the answer, but half of him still couldn't quite take it in.

Anna, who had been watching Vlad with an expression of both anger and apprehension, blinked in surprise.

'What do you mean, is it a picture of you? Of course it's you, it's even got your name at the bottom, look,' she said, pointing.

Vladimir Dracula. Yes, that was his name.

'Is that really what I look like?'

It was clear Anna didn't know what to say. She just looked utterly perplexed.

'Last time I saw myself, I looked so much more… This guy is way too thin, and he's so pale he looks ill… like he's about to drop down dead.'

'Vlad… that guy is you!'

Vlad raised his eyes to look at Anna, feeling utterly appalled. 'Do I look like I should be dead?'

Anna rocked backwards slightly, frowning. 'What? No! I mean, you definitely look very pale, and I think you probably could do with getting a few good meals in you, but I wouldn't say _dead…'_

Vlad still felt rather horrified, but he tried to soften his expression after he'd had a good look at Anna's face.

'Sorry… It's just very, very odd seeing myself. The last time I saw my reflection was when I was 16.'

A look of realisation came over Anna before she asked, 'What did you look like then?'

Vlad opened his mouth to explain, but then had a better idea, and grabbing Anna's phone that she had left on kitchen counter he did a quick Google search.

'There,' he said, after he'd found the page he was looking for. It was a school article from Stokely Grammar, at the top of which was a group photo of boys in rugby kit and covered in mud. Vlad pointed to the left side of the group, where his younger self was standing, with a tired but satisfied looking grin on his face.

'I was about thirteen there, or something…' Vlad said.

Anna's eyebrows had raised when she found Vlad, and she looked up at the real Vlad and down at the photo a few times before saying. 'Wow.'

'I don't remember looking too different by the time I was sixteen, but this…' Vlad Vlad said, looking down at the poster again. 'This guy looks… no wonder you were wary around me at first.'

'I wasn't _weary_ of you…'

'You flinched away from me at least once,' Vlad said, with a small teasing smile.

'Well, that's not because I thought you looked particularly scary Vlad. I mean, yes, in this old photo you do look… different. You're hair is a lot lighter for a start, and you look all flushed and a bit tanned I suppose. In fact, to be honest you look like any other human.'

Anna flicked her eyes towards him and offered him a comforting smile. 'I wouldn't worry about what you look like, Vlad. To me you don't look like any other old human, but in a way it's kind of endearing. Anyway! We're not even talking about the biggest problem here. There is one of these posters on every street corner out there,' Anna said, gesturing towards the door. 'People are going to be searching the streets and everyone and anyone will recognise you if you even step your foot outside the door!'

Vlad let the poster and his arm fall to his side. Being able to see what he looked like for the first time after three or four years had driven everything else from his mind. 'It's pretty bad yeah. I can't stay here.'

'But where else can you go?'

'I… I don't know. My sister was on the run once, and it's fine whilst it's still night, but as soon as the sun comes up you have to find a place to stay out of the light all day, and even if you do find somewhere you're trapped there.'

'What about booking into a hotel or something for a few nights?' Anna said, trying to think.

'If there was anything left of the Dracula fortune before I got caught by the slayers then there definitely isn't any now. I haven't got a penny to my name,' Vlad said, with a small laugh, as he continued heating up the blood he'd started to prepare before Anna had come rushing in with the poster.

'Don't be silly, I don't mind paying,' Anna said, sitting on the kitchen counter and watching Vlad as he got a mug from the cupboard.

'I can't do that forever though, can I. And with that there's still the chance someone might recognise me. Do you have a straw?'

'Oh, yeah, in the draw.'

With a ping the blood was warm, and taking a straw Vlad sat himself down beside Anna and started to sip it thoughtfully.

'Have you got all your powers back now?' Anna asked.

Vlad nodded as he slurped. 'I think so. I was going to try and ration this blood, but I didn't realise how hungry I was, and even if I were to drink it all now it will keep me full for a good few days, I reckon. And it means my powers should be fully recharged.'

There was a pause as Vlad continued to slurp the blood, then Anna said, 'Where ever you go Vlad, I'll come with you.'

Vlad stopped slurping.

'I know you're going to say 'you'll be in danger, Anna!' or 'what about your dad and the guild?' but that doesn't matter. I am going to do whatever I can to make sure that revolting Slayers guild and my sad excuse for a father never get their hands on you. We can show everyone who the 'monsters' really are.'

Vlad glanced at Anna, who was starting fixedly on the tiled wall in front of them, with a look that was scarily close to hate. Vlad had a funny feeling in his chest just looking at her. Ever since they had escaped the camp Vlad had noticed it. Of course, he hadn't known Anna for long, but just in the past few days she seemed very different. She had once been easily flustered and care free, like anyone should be at eighteen, but the defiant look she wore now made her look much older, and slightly more scary.

'He is still your dad, you know. I bet he loves you very much, and if you were to just disappear with me…'

'Are you sticking up for him, after everything he's done to you?'

'I'm not saying any of what your dad or the slayers did in the camp was right,' Vlad said, putting down his mug, 'but I wouldn't let yourself grow to hate him. He is still family. My sister and my dad have done horrible things in the past, but I always managed to forgive them, and I will always protect them no matter what…'

Vlad couldn't help but flinch away from Anna at the sudden change in her expression, and he immediately shut up.

She looked at him with darkened eyes and a mouth that looked like it belonged to death himself. 'You want me to forgive that sick excuse for a man? The father who pretends to be considerate and caring when he comes home, but at work is dissecting and killing living things. He is as about as high up as you can go in the guild, Vlad. He is the one who let the slayers build those labs, and he's been there from the start, watching as they've used them. And does he think I'm so neive, so simple minded, that a few fake words of reassurance and a false smile will make me forget what I saw? That patronising freak is not my dad anymore. You may not understand, Vlad. Maybe vampire families are a lot more forgiving that human ones, but I know I can't forgive my dad. Ever. In fact, I wouldn't mind cutting off _his_ limbs and watching _him_ bleed…'

'Anna!' Vlad said, and he grabbed her by the arm. 'Listen to yourself. You're scaring me,' and she really was. Just looking at her Vlad had never seen such an angry expression on anyone, and he'd grown up with Ingrid.

Anna glared at him for a very long moment, then she let out a very long breath. 'Sorry. I'm just… I'm getting carried away.'

Vlad nodded slightly, then pulled Anna lightly towards him and put his arm around her shoulder. She still felt very tense, as though her anger had frozen her solid, but she leant into the crook of his arm and wrapped her arm around his waist.

'Now that I think about it,' said Vlad, after they'd sat together in silence for a bit. 'I want to find out what's happened to my dad. He wasn't in the same camp as me, and there were vampires there that were a lot less powerful and well known than him. I want to know what the slayers have done with him.'

'Well, maybe that could be our first move,' said Anna. 'We find your dad, then…'

'My sister too, I want to check she's alright.'

'Dad, then sister, then we squish the guild.'

'O…ok,' said Vlad, and felt his body tense a little to match Anna's, as they both fell back into silence.

**Hope you liked it, and are ready for some more... I have had a sudden surge of inspiration for this fic, this time I might even see it to the end! Shock, horror!**


	24. Jonno

_I want your latest report on you-know-who's escape. Be at my office in ten minutes. Don't keep me waiting._

_Signed, the Commander._

The message was blunt and to the point, as always. Jonno let his eyes flick quickly though the email once more, then closed it and sat up stiffly in his chair. He'd been expecting the Commander's call, and yet it still made him so tense that he felt utterly frozen to his seat. He took a deep breath and tried to calm his nerves, looking around at the warm afternoon light bouncing off his office walls.

Of all the head quarters Jonno had ever called home, this one was almost definitely the nicest. It had a perfect view over a lush green park and pond, where families liked to come and feed the ducks, they had spared no expense with the décor, and there was a comfortable pub over the road that did three pints for a fiver!

Except that was the main reason Jonno had never truly felt at ease since he'd started working at the HQ. He was just too comfortable. A rough life, spent scouting up and down the country for biters, always on the edge of death, and bravely fighting for the safety of humankind!... had now been replaced with a comfortable nine-to-five desk job.

When he thought about it rationally, Jonno had no right to complain. He was in one of the top positions, with a more than respectable salary. He knew that not having to worry about being turned into one of the undead on his way home from work should fill him with relief, not tedium. Risking his life chasing vamps had now been replaced with safely writing up reports. The essence of the Slayer's Guild had once been fighting for freedon from fangs, but now it was more like they were just a bunch of vamp-minders, managing the vamp camps. The government had deemed the guild the best ones for the job, partly because the imprisonment of all the vamps meant there was else for the slayers to do.

Until now.

Jonno couldn't help letting a satisfied smile slide across his face as he looked at the file in front of him.

Vladimir Dracula.

Jonno had been shocked when the news had reached the HQ, but he didn't know why. If he had placed a bet on which vamp was most likely to escape, it would have been on Vlad. Even with his Chosen One status aside, Dracula was still rather adept, even to the point of being downright devious. Something him and all of his family had in common.

And now Dracula was out life had gone back to the way it should be, slayers vs. vamps. Right now, somewhere among the comfortable subburbs and lush greenery, a vampire was lurking, waiting to be caught.

The hairs on the back of Jonno's kneck were rising just at the thought, and he loved it.

Of course, the escape had brought an even greater load of reports onto Jonno's desk, and many issues had needed resolving. Already security around and inside the camp had been quadrupled, and Slayer HQ was now demanding weekly situational reports, rather than monthly. And of course, a lot of effort was going into actually searching for Vlad. Jonno had been wracking his brains over the last few days, trying to predict Vlad's movements, but his efforts had been futile. The guild had held meeting after meeting, and it had finally been decided that a photograph would be published, with wanted posters being sent out that morning.

Jonno's long train of thought was interrupted abruptly by a firm rapping at the door, and a split second later a slayer came hurrying in, looking more than a little flustered.

'Sir, we need you and your squad immediately. We've had a call from this batty old woman saying she knows where the escaped biter is lurking, and her and a big group of the local townspeople are going to go and get him. Even if this woman has a few screws loose, sir, I think we should head down there. It sounds like we could have a riot on our hands.'

Jonno was used to moving fast, and was about to grab his stake and head out the door, before he remembered the Commander's email.

The slayer, who was clearly waiting for Jonno to spring into action, was shifting impatiently. 'Here, sir… a transcript of the conversation with the woman.'

Jonno was handed a short page of text. He let his eyes skim quickly through it, then nodded.

'Ok, Rogers, ok,' Jonno said, thinking quickly. 'Head down to my squad and get them ready as quickly as possible. I've got to go and see the Commander.'

'Oh… oh, of course,' said the Slayer, looking slightly worried. 'You had better not keep her waiting, sir.'

'Yes, I know.'

The slayer turned quickly to leave before Jonno said, 'You haven't actually met the Commander, have you Rogers?'

'What, sir? Oh, no… no she only deals with the higher-ups like yourself, sir. I'm not sure I really _want _to meet her though,' he contined thoughtfully. 'Not from what I've heard anyway.'

'Ok, well get going quickly, Rogers. I'll be there as soon as I can be,' Jonno said, as the other slayer raced out the door.

Jonno drained the last dregs of a cold cup of tea, gave the photograph of his father that hung on the wall a quick nod, and headed out the door himself. The Commander, unlike all the other Guild higher-ups, had chosen to have her office down in the basement of the building.

As Jonno hurried downstairs he used a window to straighten out his uniform and smooth back his hair. He felt a cold sweat creeping over him, and his hands had the slightest of shakes. His body always reacted the same way when he went to see the Commander. He was a highly trained slayer, at the top of his game, for garlics sake! He shouldn't have been so frightened, behaving like a naughty child on his way to see the headteachcer.

Yes, you're a highly trained slayer, said another voice in the back of his head, but you have a good reason to be scared.

By this point he had reached the Commander's office, and when he heard her authoritative instruction to enter he quickly did so.

'Commander,' he said in greeting, with a slight inclination of the head.

'Ah, Jonno. My favourite slayer.'

Jonno couldn't quite meet her gaze as he came in and sat down on the other side of her desk.

Although older than Jonno, she was still very young to be Commander of the Slayer's Guild. But then, of course, she was very knowledgeable about vampires and all things related to them. It had been her leadership that had brought the Guild to the place it was in now. It was because of her that all the vampires in the country were now detained. She had finally done what countless others had tried to do in her place, whilst managing to wrap a lot of Guild members around her little finger.

'So, give me the report!' she said, leaning forwards on her desk, almost hopefully.

Jonno gulped as silently as he could, but still he knew she'd heard it. 'No sightings, Commander. Vladimir Dracula has been gone for the last few days now, and we've been doing everything we can…'

'Of _all _the people to escape, it had to be him, didn't it?' she said, with an air of malice. 'The 'Chosen One', as they like to call him.'

'With any luck, he won't be out for long. We've got a promising lead as a result of the poster we sent out, which I'll follow up after this meeting…'

'What!?' Jonno shuddered at the stern tone of her voice. 'You mean you're just sitting here when there could be a possible chance of capture? You can give me a report anytime. Get out there and find that pathetic excuse for a vampire!'

Jonno flinched, and got up from his seat. 'Right away, Commander. Could I have… the weekly confirmation now though?'

'What? Oh, yes, yes the envelope is over there on the side,' then the Commander twirled a pen she was holding with a peculiar smile on her face before she said, 'Don't you worry your pretty little slayer socks off Jonno. She's still safe. She always will be. I'll keep her living in utter luxry, in fact! As long as you play by the rules.' With that last comment her voice had changed to a bone-chilling hiss that sent a shiver down Jonno's whole body.

He walked around the chair, picked up the envelope and had a peak inside. There was a photo of Mina Van Helsing, holding a copy of yesterdays newspaper along with a small scrap of paper with the words 'stay stafe x' written in her handwriting. The envelope was the same everytime, and yet still Jonno couldn't help letting a relieved sigh leave his lips.

'What makes you think this particular lead is anything to go by?' the Commander called after Jonno as he reached for the door handle.

'It was a call from a civilian, telling us that she knows where Vlad is and that her and some local townspeople are heading down there right now to surround the house he's hiding in. He may not be there at all, but if the public are taking the matter into their own hands we need to go and monitor the situation.'

'Well, good luck Jonno,' said the Commander. 'And if you _do _see my darling younger brother, be sure to give him a bite from me.'

**Let me know what you think!**


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